July 30, 2021 - Damir Martin increases Croatia's medal count in Tokyo to 4 with an Olympic rowing bronze medal in single sculls!

Croatian rower Damir Martin won the bronze medal in single sculls at the Olympic Games in Tokyo! The gold was won by the Greek rower Stefanos Ntouskos, and the silver by Norwegian rower Kjetil Borch.

Martin paddled the final very tactically. In the middle of the race, he was about two seconds behind the leading trio, and alongside Ntouskos and Borch, Denmark's Sverri Nielsen was at the top. The situation was similar 500 meters before the finish. But in the very end, Nielsen started to give up, and Martin stepped up and passed the finish line 15 seconds before for another big medal.

It is the third Olympic medal for 33-year-old Martin, after the silver in the quadruple sculls from London in 2012 and the silver in the singles from Rio de Janeiro in 2016. He also has two world titles in the quadruple sculls (2010, 2013) and two European gold in singles (2015, 2016).

"This medal is not bronze; this is platinum for me," said Martin after winning the bronze medal.

"Jesus, it began with an emotionally and completely drained guy from Vukovar, who, after hip surgery and a long rehabilitation, was not considered a favorite for the finals, let alone a medal.

Thank you to my family, thank you to my coach Srećko Šuk who never gave up on me, and especially thank you to Pero Kuterovac, who was with me every time and pushed me. Thanks also to you media who have been with me in these five years when I couldn’t make it to the top," Martin began.

"This has been going on all five years, not just this race and everything going on around me. If the Olympics were last year, I would have performed, but it would have been more recreational. I had a bad start; by no means did I feel comfortable in this boat, and even after the quarterfinals, we made drastic changes to the boat, which is not normally done. Luckily, we set it up perfectly, but the start was awful. Halfway down the track, I told myself that if there was a photo finish, I knew where I had lost. In the end, I was very close to the Norwegian and another silver. But I won’t complain about the bronze. In fact, this is not bronze for me; this is platinum," Marin said. 

Source: HRT

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