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

To follow the latest sports news in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

To learn more about sport in Croatia, CLICK HERE. 

November 22, 2019 - Croatia's best female shooter Snjezana Pejcic and her Indian teammate Divyansh Singh Panwar won the mixed team air rifle competition to wrap up the World Cup final in Putian, China on Friday.

HRT reports that in the competition for the gold medal, Pejcic and Panwar were better than Indian shooter Apruvi Chandela and Chinese shooter Changdong Zhang, winning 16:14.

In the final fight, five shots were fired. In each series, the scores of the teams were totaled and the pair with the better score received two points. In the event the teams were tied for points, the result would be 1:1. 

Pejcic and Panwar were behind during most of the final and had to come back from 12:14 in the last two series. In these series, the Croatian Olympian had scores of 10.7 and 10.8, and thus significantly contributed to winning the gold medal.

The bronze medal was won by British shooter Seonaid McIntosh and Chinese shooter Haonan Yu who defeated Korean Eunheau Jung and Russian Sergei Kamensky. 

Snjezana Pejcic is a 37-year-old air rifle shooter from Rijeka, Croatia, who has been active in the sport since she was 15 and is is a member of Lokomotiva sport shooting club. Pejcic kicked off her celebrated shooting career by winning the Juniors European Shooting Championship in Thessaloniki in 2002. She then went on to win second place at an ISSF World Cup in 2008. 

While her most significant success is winning the bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Pejcic won the silver at the World Championships in 2014 and the bronze in Changwon in 2018. She won the gold medal at the European Championships in 2009 in both the 10-meter air rifle and 10-meter air rifle team competition, and in 2017 in Maribor. Pejcic has four silver medals at the European Championships in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017. She also won the gold medal at the Mediterranean Games in the 50-meter rifle three positions category. 

Pejcic has already qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which will be her fourth appearance at the Olympic Games. 

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

Meet the Croatian ISSF Shooter of the Year.