July 24, 2021 - On the second day of the Olympic Games, Croatian athletes recorded great results. Here's our Croatia Olympics July 24 recap. 

Brothers Martin and Valent Sinković performed superbly to kick off their Olympic Games campaign in Tokyo. In the first race of the qualifying group, they won with a time of 6:32.41, which was 4.52 seconds faster than second-placed Denmark and 8.58 faster than third-placed Canada.

"We are generally satisfied with the race, but we definitely need to be better for the semifinals," said Valent Sinković.

Croatian gymnast Tin Srbić was excellent in the qualifying round, and with a score of 14,633, he holds first place. Two more subdivisions remain, and the final outcome will be known at around 3 pm Croatia time.

"This is one of the most difficult competitions in my career in terms of stress and tension," admitted Srbić.

Croatian table tennis player Andrej Gaćina (35) also successfully started his fourth Olympic Games campaign. In the 1st round match in the individual competition, he defeated Togoan Kokou Dodji Fanny 4-0 (11-5, 11-6, 11-3, 13-11).

In the 2nd round, Gaćina will play against a much more demanding opponent, the Frenchman Emmanuel Lebeson.

Croatian boxer Nikolina Ćaćić defeated American Yarisel Ramirez in the 1st round duel of the 57 kg category by a unanimous decision of the judges.

The 20-year-old Ćaćić is the first Croatian boxer to ever perform at the Olympic Games, and she recorded her first victory. However, she was not the favorite against an equally young American.

"This is just the beginning for me; I consider boxing a game, I am good at it, and I hope you will watch me for a long, long time. I am not thinking about the next opponent," said Ćaćić.

Croatian shooter Snježana Pejčić took 31st place in the 10-meter air rifle discipline. Pejčić recorded 622.6, which was enough for 31st place, but it was not enough for the finals.

"Not good, but not bad either. I think the result with which we entered the finals surprised everyone because it is a really high threshold. With 628 points, I was left without a final. Nobody knew what to expect, but the results are terribly high," said Snježana.

Kristina Tomić (26), a member of the Croatian Taekwondo team, was also unlucky. She lost in the 1st round in the category up to 49 kilograms to Colombian Andrea Ramirez Vargas.

Source: HRT

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At the Taekwondo World Championship in Manchester, current European champion Kristina Tomić won the bronze medal, repeating her success from last year, reports HRT on May 18, 2019. 

While Tomić was free in the first round of the competition, in the second round, she beat French competitor Sarah Adidou 26:6, Azerbaijani Patimat Abakarov 12:3 and Tunisian Ikram Dhahri 14:10.

In the semifinal, Tomić lost to the two-time Olympic winner, Chinese competitor Jingyu Wu, who won 30-12. Tomić did, however, complain of foot pain, though Jingyu Wu was also just too strong for the Croatian athlete. Recall, Jingyu Wu also beat Lucija Zaninović at the London Olympics and in two world championships.

This is the second consecutive world medal for Kristina Tomić after the bronze in Korea two years ago.

Croatia had another strong competitor for the bronze medal two days before the end of the championship, but Nikita Glasnović dramatically ended her campaign without a medal in the 57kg category.

Glasnović lost the quarterfinal fight for the medal to the Canadian of Korean origin Park (11-11, 11-14). Nikita led 7-0, and ten seconds before the end had an advantage of 11-7, though her rival managed to hit with her leg at Glasnović’s body twice for the tiebreaker. 

Although Nikita was more active in that part of the battle, she was unable to prevail, and her dreams of the second world medal were shattered. Recall, Glasnović received her first medal in 2017 when she won the bronze at the World Championship in Muzu. However, at the time, Glasnović was still representing Sweden. 

Somewhat unexpected and quite early in the competition, current European champion Toni Kanaet (74 kg) was eliminated in the third round. After he easily overcame Lebanese competitor Cheiban (18-3), he fell to Italian Alessio (8-29). The young Split native, however, has won medals in the last two European championships (gold in 2018 and silver in 2016), though he will have to wait two years until Wuxi for a chance at his first world medal. 

On the fourth day of the competition at the Manchester Arena, Ana Taslak (53 kg), Matea Jelić (67 kg), Lovre Brečić (63 kg) and Luka Horvat (80 kg) will fight for Croatia. 

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