The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

The Russian-Ukranian conflict has affected Bahamian sport as Jonquel Jones left Russia yesterday.

Jones, who traditionally spends her WNBA offseason in Russia with her UMMC Ekaterinburg Foxes basketball club of the Russian Premier League, recently stated that she left the country yesterday as fighting between the two sides continued to escalate.

“Just landed in Turkey and all I want to do is cry. That situation was way more stressful than I realised,” Jones tweeted yesterday.

“Thank you God for always watching over and protecting me.”

As the conflict began with the large scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Jones previously issued statements assuring the public of her safety, but eventually made the decision to leave.

“To everybody that messaged me, checked on me, asked a friend about me while I was in Russia I really want to say thank you. I felt that love,” she continued in the series of tweets, “God is undefeated.”

The conflict has also affected Jones and the Foxes on the court as FIBA officially announced its decision to ban all Russian teams from all FIBA international basketball competitions.

UMMC was among the group of Russian clubs disqualified from the FIBA EuroLeague Women 2021- 2022 season.

Jones led the Foxes to an undefeated regular season and the top overall seed in the league at 4-0.

In 11 EuroLeague games, she averaged a team-leading 17.1 points, 9.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 blocks per game.

The Foxes were favoured to repeat as EuroLeague champions for the seventh consecutive year with a roster that also includes Brittney Griner (Phoenix Mercury), Breanna Stewart (Seattle Storm), Allie Quigley (Chicago Sky) and Courtney Vandersloot (Chicago Sky).

“We accepted this decision with true sorrow and regret because we believe that it has nothing in common with neither basketball nor sport or Olympic movement values in general,” the club issued in an official statement.

“For all times our hearts and our minds stayed opened to the whole world and we were always ready to share our resources and skills with partners from all nations in order to create and produce the top-quality product in the modern women’s basketball.”

Jones also has ties to eastern Europe as a member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team programme. She recently led BIH to a FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 qualification.

She led BIH to a 1-1 record and was named TISSOT MVP and a member of the All-Tournament team at the World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Osaka, Japan.