Such a great buzz being able to say that having won 3 Gold and 2 Silver medals by day 13 of 2016 Olympic Games Croatia is Number 18 out of 206 countries competing and yet population wise it would probably be on the tail end of this count. What a fantastic achievement. So proud!
Croatia’s Sandra Perkovic flirted with disaster by fumbling the first two throws before snatching gold in the women’s discus on Tuesday 16 August, successfully defending her 2012 London Games title. Hence, becoming only the second woman to successfully defend her Olympic discus title. In Rio, Perkovic appeared on edge but dug deep to hurl her third effort 69.21 meters and retain her crown, winning by 2.48 meters ahead of rivals who never looked like matching her.
Croatian brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic secured a gold medal in the men’s double sculls final in the Olympic rowing regatta on Thursday 11 August 2016, in a tough duel that saw them battling Lithuania’s boat neck-and-neck for much of the race.
After taking an early lead and holding Lithuania’s Mindaugas Griskonis and Saulius Ritter to the second-place spot through the 1000-meter mark, Croatia slipped back into second place in the third-quarter. Lithuanian fans in the stands at Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon cheered wildly as the two boats battled for gold through the final half of the race.
Ultimately, Croatia won in a time of 6:50.28, Lithuania claimed silver in 6:51.39 and Norway took bronze.
It was Monday 8 August 2016 when Croatia’s Josip Glasnovic captured gold in men’s trap at the Rio Olympics after defeating Italy’s Giovanni Pellielo in a sudden death final match that went to a shoot-off. Glasnovic and Pellielo went back and forth throughout the gold medal match until they both finished with 13 out of 15. In the fourth round of the sudden death shootout, Pellielo missed and Glasnovic followed up with a hit to win his first Olympic medal. Shooting first, Pellielo actually missed on his fourth shot. Glasnovic calmly hit his fourth and triumphantly raised his gun in the air as pink dust from the target blew in the gusting wind.
Though Glasnovic had found modest success in World Shooting Championships and European Shotgun Championships, his best finish was fifth place in the event, and he didn’t compete in the 2012 London Games. He was confident all afternoon though, being the only competitor in the semi-final at Rio to shoot a perfect 15 for 15.
This is the second consecutive gold medal for Croatia in men’s trap, as Giovanni Cernogoraz won in 2012 London games.
Croatian rower Damir Martin won the silver medal after finishing second in the final of the Men’s single sculls at Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon on Saturday 13 August 2016.
Martin, who cruised into the final after winning a qualifier and coming second in the semi-final, was beaten in a photo-finish by defending Olympic champion Mahe Drysdale from New Zealand. Czech Republic’s Ondřej Synek finished in third place.
The medal is another for Martin’s impressive collection. He already has an Olympic silver medal, two World Championship gold medals and a European Championship gold.
Tonci Stipanovic clinched Croatia’s maiden sailing medal on Saturday 13 August 2016 as he stood first overall after the opening-round races in the men’s Laser class.
“It’s still sinking in, this first medal, this was the best day on all five days of racing,” Stipanovic, who finished fourth at the 2012 London Olympics, told reporters. “I managed to pass Tom (Australia’s Tom Burton) on the downwind, and now it’s between just him and me.”
Despite only one first in the opening round, Stipanovic earned his spot at the front of the 10 medal-round finalists out of a 46-boat fleet with eight top-10 finishes in the preliminary races. Race ended with Australia’s Tom Burton finished claiming gold, Stipanovic won silver, and New Zealand’s Sam Meech got bronze.
With a few days of Olympic competitions left Croatia may climb the ladder of glory a notch higher but even if its medal tally stays as is it’s such a joy and pride to pin this feather onto the Croatian success cap. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)
Many Congratulations Croatia. You’ve much to be proud of.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
Big Olympic Gold Grade Hugs to you David 🙂 <3
The race between Martin and Drysdale was incredible. I thought they both should have won gold.
Me too Gallivanta – amazing, thrilling stuff – but Photo Finish is Photo Finish – must respect that – ever millimeter counts there
Martn would have had gold if the times had been measured precisely enough. He was actually 0.007 seconds ahead of Drysdale but the IOC only records times to the nearest .01 second.
Congratulations. I hope Croatians feel very happy about this.
I am unsure about the British effort, though. Funding is channelled with the intention of getting medals, around £5m per medal won. China puts a lot of money into medals too. I don’t like Google’s crowing about stats which happen to show US dominance- if we called the EU one competitor-group, the EU would out-perform the US.
Great Britain running Number 2 after US, Clare – and yes, if all European countries joined their medal tally – it would be top – so us 84 medal to 319 million people Great Britain 50 medals to 64 million people, which makes Britain come tops over US a medal per population, Croatia even better and China with its third place im medal count comes up in population comparison a real loser – Fun with figures but yes money helps I guess to win more medals as with money you can spend time choosing more sports people to try their might to qualify…
Given needed opportunities Croatia could do much better. Not enough money to invest in preparing and choosing talents – but I reckon the ratio of medal per population would put Croatia on top of the world this time. Well done Croatia!
Well done indeed, Wilkinson. Cheers all the way
There’s something unique and special about the Croatian competitive spirit and attitude to excel in sport. Just wish we could transform that passion to be the best to politics. One can dream.
One can dream, indeed, Sunman especially when facts are strong like in case of Croatia
woohooo! I love to hear good stories!
Another gold for Croatia came yesterday – sailing… how good is that 🙂
Nice article, nice change of pace! 🙂
Thanks Arlin, am preparing a new article for the as Croatia has done even better at the Olympics – YEAH!
Great results. Congratulations to all who won medals and to those who came close, sometimes by fractions of a second.
Yeah – even better still with more medals am writing about it for for next article – so proud of all the sports people competing, tough job but so rewarding 🙂
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Nice one dishdessert 🙂
GO, CROATIA….GO!!!! 🙂
😀 <3
The read and white checked sports jerseys were especially beautiful, Ina. Congratulations to your team for making a big and lasting impression!
How are you, dear? I just wanted to let you know my summer work schedule is many more hours than the other three seasons. I apologize for missing some fantastic posts. 🙂
Aw, you’re so kind Robin – thank you. I am well and good to hear you have been busy because it’s great to be busy – the alternative never satisfies. Hugs aplenty 😀 Keep well
I already said bravo to Croatia. I wish to reiterate it. Bravo Croatia.
Thank you 🙂
Well done guys! 😊
Thanks Kev 😀