July 29, 2021 - The Sinković brothers have done it again - they have won the rowing Olympic gold medal in Tokyo!

The celebrated Valent and Martin Sinković have won the Olympic gold in the coxless pairs discipline at the Olympic Games in Tokyo!

The Sinković brothers started strongly in their style from the start and immediately took the lead. After 500 meters, they had a 1.16-second advantage over Denmark and more than two seconds over the other four crews. In the middle of the race, the Sinković brothers were already a boat's length in front of the first runners-up, Romania, and Denmark, and held that advantage until the last 200 meters.

In the very end, the excellent Romania team of Marius Cozmiuc and Ciprian Tudosa managed to get closer, but the Sinković brothers attacked and passed the finish line with a 1.29-second advantage. The bronze was won by Denmark's Frederic Vystavel and Joachim Sutton.

This is the third Olympic medal for the Sinković brothers in the third different discipline, after the silver in the quadruple sculls from London 2012 and the gold in the doubles sculls from Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

The Sinković brothers reached a new triumph with convincing victories in all three of their appearances in Tokyo, starting on Saturday in the qualifiers, continuing on Wednesday in the semifinals, and finishing the job on Thursday in the finals.

This is the second gold for Croatia in Tokyo, three days after taekwondo fighter Matea Jelić was the best in the category up to 67 kilograms.

"I don't know what to say smartly, we said everything on the track. The race is exactly as we imagined. We got Romania every time they tried to catch up with us," said Martin Sinković.

Valent added:

"Romania tested us to the limit. They set off before we thought of an attack, at 1000 meters already, we let them in a bit, and then at 750, we hit all the way so they didn’t feel blood. The last 200 we did the work, we said we wouldn’t breathe."

"We wanted to cross the finish line first and we achieved that. We made history, we made history with the world’s first gold, and now we’re still up," said Martin.

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July 11, 2021 -  The. Jurković sisters are the latest Croatian rowing sensation, taking home the gold medal at the U23 World Championships held in Račice, Czech Republic.

Vela Luka natives and twin sisters Ivana and Josipa Jurković won the title of world champions in the coxless pairs at the U23 World Championships held in Račice, Czech Republic.

The Jurković sisters, members of VK Trešnjevka, led in the finals from start to finish and finished in 7:17.20 minutes. The silver went to Americans Caitlin Esse and Lucy Koven who recorded 7:19.79, and the bronze to Germans Lena Sarassa and Hannah Reif with 7:22.39,  reports Vecernji List.

"Winning gold has been our dream since we started rowing together. The bond between the two of us as twins is something that can be hard to explain. In Croatian rowing, brothers and sisters are the secrets of success, the best-kept secret," said Ivana after the triumph.

The Jurković sisters were also the overall winners of the World Cup in this discipline, but they still failed to qualify for the Olympics in Tokyo. The Jurković sisters were world champions for the first time in 2017, then as juniors, but in the coxless fours together with Bruno Milinović and Izabela Krakić.

Patrik and Anton Lončarić from Osijek, world junior champions from 2017, also competed in the finals of the coxless pairs, but they were left without a medal, finishing in fourth place. The Lončarić twins passed the finish line in a time of 6:40.94 minutes, 3.38 seconds after the bronze was won by Turks Kaan Aydin and Aydin Sahin. The gold was won by Britons Calvin Tarczy and Douwe De Graaf with 6:30.73, and the silver by Lithuanians Dovydas and Domantas Stankunas with 6:33.46.

Ivan-Ante Grgić and Patrik Papac did not make it to the finals of the doubles, as they finished fifth in their group in the semifinals.

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