At the women’s world championships two former NEKA players, Petra Vámos and Noémi Pásztor could present their skills, and they are telling the story of their first adult top event.

Petra Vámos, 19, joined the squad as a rookie, but despite all that, she got the opportunity in all the matches and did not get scared.The daily sports newspaper Nemzeti Sport evaluated the World Championship performance of all players, the daily wrote about the Debrecen playmaker – who spent altogether 2 hours 3 minutes on the court, scored 8 goals out of 16 shots, made 13 assists, 10 technical fouls and one steal – as follows.

 

“Kim Rasmussen counted with the 19-year-old talent mostly on the defensive end. She has not been afraid of the task, fought and tried hard. However, due to this, in the offensive, she was less able to show her lively, dynamic and clever play.Her courage, mindset and attitude are clearly there, definitely a strong player for the future.”

Petra Vámos has returned home from Japan with both pleasant and unpleasant memories, but she is trying to gain strength from all of them.

“I have a lot of memories of the World Championships. The hectic match against the Romanians, which has prevented us from reaching our goal, is terribly painful,however, I have gained a lot of positive experience and knowledge during these few weeks. I was very excited about the first matches of the World Championships, because I could play against my role models. In overcoming this, I owe a lot to the girls and the staff, who have always encouraged and supported me.”

Of course, the head coach of the national team had also addressed Petra after the tournament.

“The head coach emphasized his satisfaction with me and told me what I needed to work on in the coming time. I try to pay attention to everything and take his pieces of advice.”

Noémi Pásztor played in the last two placement matches against the Argentine and the French. In 55 minutes of play, he scored one goal out of five shots, made one assist and besides committing two technical fouls she had three steals. The player of Ferencváros received the following evaluation by the daily paper Nemzeti Sport.

“She started the tournament as a third pivot, but her work so far made sure she got the chance to play in the last two matches. If she shows continuous progress in her club and gains more experience both in attack and defence, then her moments can come in the following tournaments. Her minutes spent on court in Japan equalled the duration of almost one match.”

Noémi Pásztor tried to use every minute of the World Championships to experience the atmosphere of the new environment, the one of an adult world competition.

In the beginning I was not nominated for the matches, but still I was happy to be able to travel with the team. I learnt a lot and could see from the matches how such a tournament looks like. I was very happy when Kim had Niki and I enter the court as substitutes, it was a great inner feeling. Unfortunately, this tournament did not go as planned, but there had been many of us youngsters involved, and everyone has learnt from it and has gained a little experience. This will become a huge asset for us, and we will be able to reach much better results in the future.”

The final placement of the World Championships in Japan turned out to be in favour of Hungary, resulting in a chance for the national team to participate at an Olympic qualifying tournament in the spring.