August 7, 2021 - The last individual representative for Croatia at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, 24-year-old Ivan Kvesić, was left without a place in the karate semifinal after he achieved one victory and three defeats in his group in the over 75 kg category. 

Kvesić started the competition with a 3-2 victory against Saudi Tareg Hamedi. This was followed by a fight against Iranian Sajad Ganjzadeh in which the referees did not recognize Kvesić with a kick to the head at 0-0 after a minute and a half of fighting. By the end, the Iranian national was better and won 3-1, reports Index.hr.

In the 2018 world champion's third fight, the 26-year-old Canadian Daniel Gaysinsky surprisingly won 4-1. After getting the point first, Gaysinsky mostly scored points by countering Kvesić's attempts to reverse the score.

Because Saudi Tareg defeated American Brian Irr (4-1) and Gaysinsky (10-3) and drew a point against the Iranian Ganjzadeh (0-0), Kvesić lost his chances of winning one of the first two places even before the last fight against Irr, because the Iranian fighter also had five points after three fights, and the maximum Kvesić could collect was four. He defeated the American 3-1. 

Kvesić is the current world champion in the 84 kg category from the World Championships in Madrid three years ago. He also won an individual silver and two bronze medals from the European Championships, and bronze and gold with the Croatia team at the European Championships in Porec in May. He also won at the 2019 European Games in Minsk. He was Croatia's great hope for a medal in Tokyo, so much so that bookmakers gave him odds around 1.70, absolutely certain he would return from Japan with a medal.

Croatia no longer has a representative in Tokyo and has won a total of eight medals. 

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The karate gold and silver has come to Croatia thanks to the brilliant Kvesić brothers from Karate club Hercegovina-Zagreb. At this year's European Games in Minsk, Ivan Kvesić won the gold medal while his brother Anđelo Kvesić secured the silver.

On Saturday, Croatian martial artist Ivan Kvesić won the karate gold medal at the European Games in Minsk. The World Champion defeated Turkish martial artist Ugur Aktas in the final of the category up to 84 kilos by the decision of the judges after the fight ended 0-0, reports Fight Site.hr.

Ivan Kvesić achieved three wins in the same number of appearances in his group and as the winner of the group, he secured himself a spot in the semifinal. Kvesić was better than Kosovar Alvin Karaqi 5-0, Montenegrin Nikola Malović 2-0, and Ukrainian Valerii Chobotar 3-0. In the semifinal, he defeated Italian Michele Martina 8-0.

Ivan’s brother, Anđelo Kvesić, lost to Asiman Gurbanli from Azerbaijan with a score of 0-1 in the final of the 84 kilo category to secure the silver. 

Anđelo Kvesić also won first place in his group. He defeated Serbian Slobodan Bitević 2-0, then by the decision of the judges, defeated Belarusian Aliaksei Vodchyts, even though the duel ended 2-2, and held 0-0 against Georgian Gogita Arkania, which was enough for both of the fighters to place in the semifinal. In the semifinal, Anđelo Kvesić defeated Jonathan Horne of England with a score of 1-0 and lost to Asiman Gurbanli from Azerbaijan 0-1.

These aren’t the only medals for Croatia at the European Games in Minsk, either. Namely, Croatia has thus far won 8 medals -  Croatia’s female athletes Lucija Babić is a gold medalist in sambo, while Barbara Matić won the bronze in Judo. 

Tomislav Pucar won the bronze in table tennis, Toni Filipi and Marko Milun secured the bronze in boxing, and Mario Vavro achieved the bronze in shooting.

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Ivan Kvesić has become the third karate World Champion in Croatian history.