Basketball: Ireland 'in the right place mentally' to compete at a higher level

Kyle Hosford says the Covid-enforced break facilitated his team’s best ever block of sustained training, resulting in them finally winning the European Championships for Small Nations

LIGHT IT UP: Irish international Kyle Hosford at the National Basketball Arena ahead of Ireland’s game with Cyprus in Nicosia tomorrow night. Ireland face Austria on Sunday night in Tallaght in a match which will be televised live on TG4. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Covid restrictions may have driven most of us to distraction last year but they were an ill-wind that blew Irish basketball a lot of good, according to new Irish senior captain Kyle Hosford.

The UCC Demons star says it facilitated his team’s best ever block of sustained training, resulting in them finally winning the European Championships for Small Nations last August at the third time of asking.