Zenit children's youth teams will play in the second round of the CYBL Championship semifinal stage

From February 24 to March 1 in Essentuki, the games of Group P2-1 will take place as part of the second round of the semifinal stage of the Russian U19 Championship (Children's Youth Basketball League).

This group includes teams that have already secured their spots in the tournament’s Final Eight. Among them is the reigning champion Zenit U19, led by head coach Dmitry Nikolaev. The results of the upcoming games will determine how the teams will be distributed into groups for the final round. Alongside Zenit, the P2-1 group will feature UOR №3 — Khimki, MBA-CYBL, Nizhny Novgorod — FOK Meshchersky, SSOR-Lokomotiv-Kuban-CYBL, and SSOR CSKA.

Zenit U19 head coach Dmitry Nikolaev shared his expectations for the upcoming stage:

For us this is the fourth round, and we have already qualified for the Final Eight. But that doesn’t mean this stage isn’t important, because the teams will be divided into groups. Naturally, we expect tough games from our opponents. In the previous round we beat everyone, and I think everyone will want to take revenge. So there definitely won’t be any easy matches.

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Two more St. Petersburg teams are also continuing their participation in the tournament. Zenit-2009 will compete in Group P2-3, whose games will take place in Krasnodar from February 23 to 28. This time the team coached by Vladislav Shumkov will face Samara-SSOR №1, BA Oskol-Basket, UOR №3-2009, Uralmash CYBL, and Lokomotiv-Kuban-CYBL.

Meanwhile, Zenit-2010, led by Vadim Dodeus, will play in Group P2-6 in Nizhny Tagil on the same dates. At this stage, the Blue-White-Sky Blues will meet Moscow Vityazi, CIVS Sports School, Enisey Basketball Sports School, Kupol-Rodniki, and Novosibirsk.