June 6, 2022 - A phenomenal achievement once again by the 17-year-old Bruna Duvančić from the Marjan Taekwondo Club in Split!

Namely, at her first Grand Prix tournament in Rome, Bruna Duvančić won the silver medal in the 49 kg category, bringing Croatia the only spot on the podium, reports Dalmacija Danas.

As a reminder, the Grand Prix is ​​a G6 category tournament and in taekwondo and it is the same as four grand slams in tennis. Furthermore, only 32 invited athletes from each Olympic category come to the tournament. This can only mean one thing - the competition is terribly strong.

For example, at the Rome tournament, the European champion Lena Stojković who competes in the category up to 46 kilograms participated in the category of up to 49 kilograms, and the winners of the world's most medals in 49 kilograms and 53 kilograms were there, too. 

On the way to the final, Bruna Duvančić celebrated against Moroccan Sahib, and in the round of 16, she was better than the two-time Olympic medalist from Rio and Tokyo Tijana Bogdanović. In the quarterfinals, Bruna got revenge against Israeli Semberg for losing in the European Championship semifinals this year. In the semifinals, the young Duvančić was better than Mexican taekwondo artist Souza.

In the final fight, she was stopped only by the Spaniard Cerezo, the Olympic runner-up in Tokyo.

Bruna thus won the European bronze and the Grand Prix silver in just one month and should become an Olympic candidate for the Paris Games next month! 

It should also be mentioned that Bruna's twin sister Ivana is also a taekwondo force to be reckoned with. The twin sisters took home bronze medals in their first senior competition earlier this year! Bruna and Ivana have already been called the successors of the Zaninović sisters.

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July 26, 2021 - Taekwondo fighter Matea Jelić defeated Great Britain's Lauren Williams in the finals of the 67 kg category at the Olympic Games in Tokyo!

It was the duel of the last two European champions in this category - Jelić won gold in Sofia this year, and Williams won gold three years ago in Kazan.

In the uncertain final, the result was 13-13 entering the final minute, but then Williams with two kicks to the body reached an advantage of 17-13. It was 21-15 for Williams until 15 seconds before the end when Jelić managed to reach colossal success with three kicks to the head.

This is the fourth medal for Croatia in the women's taekwondo competition. Before Jelić, bronze medals were won by Sandra Šarić and Martina Zubčić in Beijing in 2008, Lucija Zaninović in London in 2012, and Toni Kanaet earlier on Monday in Tokyo.

TK Marjan Split thus achieved incredible success today in Tokyo! Jelić's gold is the greatest success for Croatian taekwondo at the Olympic Games.

In her first appearance in Tokyo, Jelić defeated Haitian Lauren Lee 22-2, in the quarterfinals Brazilian Milena Titonelli 30-9, and secured a medal with a 15-4 victory against American Paige McPherson in the semis. 

More soon...

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July 26, 2021 - Croatia taekwondo national team member Matea Jelić is close to winning a medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in the category up to 67 kilograms!

The world champion in this category advanced to the semifinals with a 30-0 victory against Brazilian Milena Titoneli, reports HRT.

Jelić started the fight well, leading 7-1, only for Titoneli to return to 7-6 by the end of the first round. However, in the second round, the 23-year-old from Knin dominated, got to 20-9, and in the third round, increased her advantage to the final 30-9.

Jelić will have the first opportunity to secure a medal in the semifinals at 9:00 Croatia time, when she will fight against American Paige McPherson in the semifinals. In case of defeat in the semifinals, Jelić will have a chance to win bronze in the rematch in the afternoon.

Toni Kanaet in the category up to 80 kg failed to reach the semifinals, losing to Russian Maxim Hramchev in the quarterfinals who led 22-0 after two rounds. The duel was interrupted due to too large a difference in points. After the first round, it was only 3-0 for the Russian, but at the beginning of the second, the Russian very quickly won eight points and practically finished. 

Kanaet is now left to hope that Kramchev will qualify for the finals and thus offer him the opportunity to win bronze through the repechage.

In other Olympic news, Croatian canoeist Matija Marinić failed to qualify for the wildwater slalom finals at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Marinić achieved the 11th time in the semifinals, and the fight for the medal includes the fastest 10. Marinić missed the placement in the finals by 2.12 seconds.

Croatian boxer Nikolina Ćaćić was defeated in the round of 16 in the 57-kilogram category. Canadian Caroline Veyre was better.

Croatian table tennis player Tomislav Pucar said goodbye to the Olympic tournament after losing to Slovenian Bojan Tokić 0-4 (9-11, 8-11, 9-11, 10-12).

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Nikita Glasnović has decided to replace her native Sweden with Croatia to compete for a spot in the 2020 Summer Olympics.

A Croatian taekwondo fight off to Rio.