March 20, 2022 - Croatian athlete Filip Mihaljević took fourth place in the shot put final at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, throwing a distance of 21.83 meters.

The 27-year-old from Livno threw 21.51 in the first series, 21.05 in the second, made an error in the third but went on to throw 21.83 meters in the fourth attempt. In the last series, Mihaljević reached 21.81 meters.

Filip threw a centimeter shorter than his record which was not enough for a medal, because the three medal winners threw over 22 meters.

A big surprise was made by the Brazilian Darlan Romani (22.53), who broke the 26-victory winning streak of the ruler of this discipline, American Ryan Crouser (22.44), and took the gold. The bronze medalist was New Zealander Tom Walsh (22.31).

Mihaljević entered the competition with the third-best result this season and the indoor record (21.84). The Croatian shot put record holder won the last Croatian medal at the indoor World Championships - he was bronze in 2016 in Portland at his very first senior world championships and threw 20.87 meters, which was his personal best.

Croatian athlete Ivana Lončarek did not manage to place among the 24 hurdlers who will compete in the 60m hurdles semifinals. Lončarek was fourth in the second qualifying group with a time of 8.19 seconds, and for direct placement, she should have been among the top three.

After the competitions in all six qualifying groups were over, it turned out that Lončarek's result was the 28th time in total, which was not enough to be among the semifinalists. She missed the semifinals by two hundredths.

If she had managed to repeat her best result from this season (8.11), Lončarek would have qualified for the semifinals without any difficulties.

The World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade were held from March 18 to 20, 2022, at the Štark Arena. 

Source: HRT

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ZAGREB, 6 March, 2021 - Croatian Filip Mihaljević grabbed a bronze medal at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in the Polish city of Torun on Friday evening, with a throw of 21.31 metres.

Czech Republic’s Tomas Stanek became the European champion with his fifth round mark of 21.62m, while home favourite Michal Haratyk finished second with a throw of 21.47 metres. Polish Haratyk is the current European track and field outdoor champion in the shot put event.

Mihaljević is now the second Croatian track and field athlete to win a medal at European indoor championships. Before him it was runner Branko Zorko with a bronze medal in the 1,500 metre race at the  22nd European Athletics Indoor Championships in Genoa, Italy, in 1992, and a silver two years later in Paris in the same event.

August 25, 2019 - Croatia's best female athlete and two-time Olympic gold discus thrower Sandra Perković finished second in the Diamond League in Paris with a result of 65.01 meters, while Cuban Denia Caballero finished in first with a throw of 1.90 meters, reports HRT.

Perković poorly opened the competition, and in the first two series, she had two faulty throws and managed 64.65 meters in the third series, giving her second place and three additional series. Her best throw of the evening came in the sixth series, but even that 65.01 meters did not threaten Caballero's victory.

Perković’s result from Paris is 3.57 meters lower than her best result of the season she set two weeks ago at the European Team Championships in Varaždin. Chinese Bin Feng took third place after throwing 64.60 meters.

By the end of the Diamond League competition, Perković is still expected to make her final appearance in Zurich on Thursday. Until the Doha World Cup (September 27 - October 6), Perković will perform in Zagreb on September 3, and at the Europe-USA duel in Minsk (September 9-10).

Filip Mihaljević also performed in Paris and finished sixth in the shot put after throwing 21.22-meters, while New Zealand's Tomas Walsh won with a new record of 22.44 meters.

Mihaljević made his best shot in the final, sixth series, jumping from eighth to sixth place, surpassing Polish shot putter Konrad Bukowiecki in seventh and Luxembourgian Bob Bertemes in eighth by two centimeters. 

The result of the Croatian representative achieved in Paris is 62 centimeters lower than his Croatian record, which he set three months ago in Slovenska Bistrica.

Walsh had a great series, even breaking the 22-meter record he set last year four times and throwing the furthest in the first series when the shot put landed at 22.44 meters. Second place went to Joe Kovacs of the USA who threw 22.11 meters, and third to Brazilian Darlan Romani who achieved 21.56 meters.

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

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