August 12, 2019 - The Croatia athletics team finished fifth in the Second League of the European Team Championships held this weekend in Varaždin.

After 40 disciplines, Croatian athletes scored 306 points, as did Latvia in fourth, though the Latvian team earned more first places, reports HRT.

Estonia finished in the first place and will be promoted to the First League after winning 336.5 points, while Slovenia came in second with 321 points and Denmark in third with 313 points.

Israel (8th), Cyprus (9th), Luxembourg (10th), Georgia (11th), and Malta (12th) dropped out of the Second League, while Serbia has been promoted to the Second League.

On Sunday, Croatia secured victories by Olympian gold medal javelin thrower Sara Kolak, and Dino Bošnjak who finished on top in the 3000-meter race. Kolak and Bošnjak join Sandra Perković, who was best discus thrower on Saturday.

Kolak justified her role as the favorite, although her score in Varaždin was still not her highest. However, a throw of 57.97 meters in the second series was enough for Kolak to compete.

And while Kolak's victory was expected, Bošnjak very pleasantly surprised in the 3000-meter race. The Croatian representative led the run from the very beginning and in an excellent finish, he was more successful than the Danish representative who could only follow his rhythm. Bošnjak had time at the finish to celebrate his victory and slowed down significantly, so his winning result was 8:01.29 minutes in the end, though it could have been well under eight minutes.

On Sunday, the second place was won by Ivan Lončarek in the 100-meter hurdles, Marija Tolj in the shot-put, Ana Šimić in the high jump and Matea Parlov in the 5000-meters. Lončarek ran 13.53 seconds, Šimić jumped 1.94 meters, while Tolj threw 15.73 meters and Parlov, with a time of 16: 03.71 minutes, set a personal record.

A significant number of points for Croatia were secured by Sven Cepuš in the 800-meters with a time of 1:49.60 minutes, and the women's 4x400 meter relay which finished in 3:40.82.

Fourth place was secured by Ivan Horvat in the pole vault (5.20 meters), Filip Mihaljević in the discus throw (62.30 meters) and Filip Svalina in the 3000-meters with hurdles (9:01.45). Filip Mičuda came in fifth of the hammer throw (62.42 meters), while the men's 4x400 meter relay took the same position with a time of 3:10.31. Bojana Bjeljac came in sixth of the 1500- meters (4:21.88), while Nikola Anđelić in the 110 meters with hurdles (14.74), and Sanjin Šimić in the triple jump (15.43 meters), took seventh place.

The only three Croatian representatives to finish at the bottom of the standings on Sunday were the 17-year-old Veronika Drljačić in the 200-meters (24.69) and Zvonimir Ivasković in the 200-meters (21.92), who both finished 10th. Marija Ivanković in the long jump (5.31meters) placed 11th in her respective discipline.

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August 11, 2019 - World champion discus thrower Sandra Perković celebrated at the European Athletics Team Championships Second League in Varaždin on Saturday, throwing 68.58 meters, which is her longest this season.

Thus, Croatia is sixth place after the first day with 149 points, while Estonia leads with 185 points, reports HRT.

Perković threw 59.85 meters in the first of her four attempts at the competition, but in the second attempt, she hit a respectable and unreachable 68.58, which is the longest shot in the history of the Second League competition, the third in the world this season, and the longest in Europe. In the remaining two attempts, Perković crossed the line, but was the only Croatian to celebrate on the first day in Varaždin.

Filip Mihaljević was second in the shot-put with an excellent 21.03 meters, confirming good form ahead of the World Cup in Doha. In this discipline, the best was Bertemes from Luxemburg, who achieved 21.64 meters. Sanjin Šimić came in second in the long jump with 7.63 meters, 15 centimeters less than the Latvian winner.

Anamarija Kožul finished third in the hammer throw with 64.79 meters, while Ida Šimunčić also finished third in the 400 hurdles with a time of 58.66 seconds and was close to her personal record. Lucia Pokos finished the 100 meters in 10th with a time of 12.36 seconds, and Lana Juriša finished eighth in the pole vault with a jump of 3.65 meters.

Ivona Zemunik finished sixth in the 800 meters and broke her personal record (2:08.45), and Marija Ivanković was sixth in the triple jump with 12.81 meters. Katarina Vukančićfinished ninth in the 3000 meters (9:56.81), Kristina Dudek came fifth in the 400 meters (54.72), and Sandra Šrut placed eighth in the 3000 hurdles with a time of 11:33.57 minutes.

Zvonimir  Ivašković finished fifth in the 100 meters with 10.84 seconds, and Mateo Parlov was seventh with 52.47 seconds in the 400 hurdles. Bartul Bašić was fifth in the javelin with 65.17 meters and Daniel Ivaničić finished eighth in the 1500 meters with 3: 59.80 minutes. Mateo Ružić was fourth in the 400 meters with 47.43 seconds, Filip Mrčić was seventh in the high jump with 2.06 meters, and Petar Bratulić was eighth in the 5000 meters with a personal record of 14:52.09 minutes.

The Croatian women's 4x100 meters relay finished ninth (45.91), while the men's relay finished with 41.20 seconds in eighth place.

Teams from Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Israel, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia and Croatia take part in the Second League competition. Only the top team from Varaždin goes to moves to a higher rank, while the last five fall into the lower league. The second and final day is scheduled for Sunday.

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