Courtesy: Vermont Athletic Communications
World University Games website
BURLINGTON, Vt. ? Former University of Vermont men’s basketball student-athlete Martin Klimes (Prague, Czech Rep.) will represent the Czech Republic National Team in the World University Games in Bangkok, Thailand from August 7-18.
One of 24 nations in the men’s basketball portion of the games, the Czech Republic is in Group D with Serbia and Mexico. Preliminary round play begins on August 7 when the Czech Republic takes on Serbia and they play Mexico on August 8. Second round games are on August 12-14, and the quarterfinals are on August 16. The semifinals are on August 17 and the gold and bronze medal games are on August 18.
Klimes also represented the Czech Republic in 2005, helping the team go 3-3 and finish 13th among 22 nations in the men’s portion of the games. He averaged 6.0 points and 3.7 rebounds per game and shot 61% (14-for-23) from the floor in the six contests.
Klimes is the fifth member of his immediate family to represent his native country in international athletics. His sister Zuzi Klimesova is a former All-SEC forward at Vanderbilt who played for the Indiana Fever of the WNBA and represented the Czech Republic at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Both of his parents, father, Vlastibor Klimes and mother, Dana Klimesova, played for the Czechoslovakian Olympic basketball teams while his grandmother is considered to be one of the greatest all-around athletes of Post World War II Europe.
As a senior last year Klimes played in all 33 games, making 25 starts and averaged 6.8 points per game and was second on the team with 4.6 rebounds per contest. He helped the Catamounts tie a school record with 25 wins and advance to the postseason National Invitational Tournament for the first time in school history, where he recorded a season-high 16 points on 8-for-11 shooting in the at Kansas State.
Klimes passed David Hehn '05 for most career and consecutive games played in Vermont history with 126 and also played in the NCAA Tournament twice, including starting and playing all 45 minutes in the overtime victory over Syracuse in the first round.