August 28, 2021 - On the last day of the U21 European Championship held in Tallinn this year, Split Marjan member, Paško Božić, won the silver medal in the heavyweight category of +87 kilograms!

In the first round, Paško won against Russian Ibrahim Abdulkerimov 25:12; in the quarterfinals, he was better than Ukrainian Lipatov 20:12, and in the semifinals, he defeated Spaniard Perez Campos 16:0. However, the final duel against Turkish national Demirci was uncertain until the very end of the fight when Demirci managed to separate at 20:10 and win the title of European champion. 

Thus, taekwondo club Marjan remained on two medals at the U21 European Championship, more precisely two European silver medalists - Josip Bilić Pavlinović in the category up to 87 kilograms and Paško Božić in the plus 87 kilograms. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that Paško and Josip were sparring partners to Toni Kanaet and Ivan Šapina during the complete preparation for the Olympic Games, which certainly made progress and used that time of preparation to improve themselves on the way to the European finals.

The European Cadet Championship was held in the same hall, where the Marjan Taekwondo Club reached a set of medals - gold for Magdalena Matić, silver for Petra Mršić, and bronze for Tee Božić. The Split club thus returns from Estonia five medals richer. 

This year, the club reached a record 11 medals in the same year. After the European Senior championship with three European champions Lena Stojković, Bruno Vuletić, and Matea Jelić, and bronze medalist Ivan Šapina, Matea Jelić won gold and Toni Kanaet bronze at the Tokyo Olympics. Still ahead for TK Marjan's athletes this year is the European Junior Championships and the World Deaf Championships, where they will surely have athletes eager to climb the podium.

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November 4, 2019 - A member of Taekwondo Club Marjan in Split Matea Jelic won the third medal for Croatia at the European Championships, this time in the category of up to 67 kilograms. 

T.portal reports that Matea was free in the first round, defeating Russian Karina Zhdanov 14-8 in the second round, and Nadica Bozanic, world junior champion and Olympic junior champion 18-5 in the battle for the medal.

The semifinal of Matea’s category boasted the best of the Taekwondo world, like Nur Tatar, the owner of an incredible ten medals in the last nine years, World and European champion, and the bronze and silver medalist at the London and Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, Magda Wiet Henin with three world and European medals and two consecutive Grand Prix medals this year and Lauren Williams, two-time European Champion.

It was the British taekwondo athlete Lauren who celebrated against Matea in the semifinal 12-17, which ultimately secured Jelic the bronze medal. It is the second European medal for Jelic after Montreux in 2016. Recall, she has since been dramatically stopped three times in medal fights at world and European championships.

At the World Championships in Muju in 2017, she lost the gold point to Nur Tatar. At the European Championships in 2018, she broke a bone in her arm against Russian Polina Khan in the fight for the medal, and this year in Manchester at the World Championships, she lost at the last second to Brazil’s Titoneli.

The Croatia national team finished their appearance at the European Senior Championships with three medals - silver medals for Lovro Brecic and Toni Kanaet and a bronze for Matea Jelic. On the last day of the competition in Bari, Ivan Sapina, a bronze medalist from the World Champs this year, lost in the first round fight.

Toni Kanaet

Lovre Brecic on the left

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November 2, 2019 - TK Marjan's Lovre Brecic won the taekwondo silver medal at the European Senior Championships in Bari, Italy!

Sportnet.hr reports that Brecic was free in the first round of the 63 kg category, and in the second, he celebrated against Ukrainian Oleksandra Dziuba 18:8. In the fight for a medal, Brecic topped Russian Bolat Izutdinov 28:16.

Brecic routinely made it through the semi-final fight against Hungarian Levente Josz 30:12 and went on to reach the final where he awaited world champion and two-time European champion Jaouad Achab, whose victory against Brecic gave him his third European championship title.

This is Brecic’s second consecutive medal at the European Championships. Recall, last year in Kazan, he was the European Champion in the same category. With this silver medal, Brecic also won 24 points in the fight for the direct placement in the Tokyo Olympics next year, and the outcome will be known after the final Grand Prix in Moscow in early December.

With Brecic’s medal, Marjan Taekwondo Club has achieved a success that perhaps no other club in the world can boast. In the same year, its members won medals at five major competitions in four different age categories. Namely, Bruna Vuletic is bronze medalist at the World Senior Championships, Lovre Brecic is the silver medalist at the European Senior Championships, Klara Kovac, Lucija Domic and Paula Antunovic won the silver and two bronze medals at the European Junior Championships, Bruna Duvancic won the silver medal at the European Junior Championships, while Rea Kozlica and Emanuel Berisha took the silver at the European Cadet Championships. Eight medals in the same year, and over the next two days, Toni Kanaet, Nikita Glasnovic, Matea Jelic and Leon Glasnovic hope for medals and points for Tokyo.

Three more Croats performed on the first day of the European Championships. Namely, in the under 49kg category, Kristina Tomic, the current bronze medalist in the World Championships, lost in the battle for the medal to Germany's Ele Aydin, Ana Taslak was stopped in the first round by Olympic silver medalist Tijana Bogdanovic, and Josip Teskera lost to Belarusian Yauheni Anushkevich.

Taekwondo was not included in the European Games this year, and this extra European Championship allows the athletes to make up for the points that other athletes around the world had the opportunity to earn at their continental games. The competition is held in five men's and five women's categories (4 men's and 4 women's Olympic plus one added category - men's 63 kg and women's 53 kg).

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One silver and three bronze medal is this year’s harvest for Croatian Taekwondo team, and the Olympic Games are close.