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Croatian taekwondo athlete Lena Stojkovic reportedly won the sixth medal for her country’s Olympic delegation at the Paris Olympics, defeating Turkish player Merve Dinsel Kavurat in two rounds for the bronze medal in the 49kg category. Hormone replacement therapy.
The woman from Split unexpectedly dominated the entire competition and there was no doubt about winning a medal, even though the Turkish woman is the current world champion in the 49kg category and Lina is the world champion in the 46kg category.
Marjan from Split is the only competitor from this lower weight group to reach the Olympic quarterfinals, and all of her opponents today were taller and tougher than her.
– We have a special strategy, it’s important that we implement it. I am always ready to achieve it. My idea is to apply pressure, attack, and make full use of my only advantage over Turkish women, which is fitness.
This is Croatia’s sixth medal in Paris and sixth in the Olympic taekwondo discipline.
– I’m very happy and proud. This medal is the result of all the hard work we’ve done in the club and in the preparation for the Olympics. I came here and I really felt physically ready and I think I showed it. “I’m very happy that we continued the success of the Tokyo Olympics and the previous Olympics,” said Lina, who spoke to the media as if she had won the Dimo Championships, not an Olympic medal. Calm and emotionless, just like her fight with Cavourat.
– Yes, I told my friends the same thing, there will be a party in Split if the medals fall. I think so too. There is happiness, pride, even some euphoria, but it will definitely be stronger when everything settles down. It will, it is a special feeling that I have never felt before and I am sure I will remember it for the rest of my life.
In the impressive halls of the Grand Palace, Lena was accompanied by compatriots sisters Lucia and Anna Zaninovic.
– Yes, thank you. They are my role models. When I was little, I saw Lucia on TV and she won the bronze medal at the London Olympics, and I will never forget it. I also dreamed of something similar. Now it is happening to me.
Two-time world and three-time European champion Lena Stojković defeated Canadian-Croatian Josip Kafadar in the round of 16 (2-0), and in the quarterfinals she was better than Tunisian Ikram Dhahri (2-1).
She was stopped by Panipak Wongpattanakit of Thailand in the semifinals and eventually won the gold medal.
There are high hopes for Stojkovic at the Olympics. In the under-46 kg category, she is a three-time European champion and a two-time world champion. She won European gold in 2021, 2022 and this year, and won the world championship in 2022 and 2023. She was named the best athlete from Croatia in the Croatian Olympic Committee selection for two consecutive years.
Croatia has won five medals in Olympic taekwondo so far, with Martina Zubčić (2008 bronze), Sandra Saric (2008 bronze), Lucia Zaninović (2012 bronze), Mateja Jelic (2021 gold) and Toni Kanaet (2021 bronze).
– We still had time after the semifinals, so we prepared. We immediately forgot about the defeat to the Thai women, which was a separate category, and prepared tactics. The tactic was to attack it continuously in rhythm. Look, Lina is a very explosive fighter, she is a sprinter. However, in this fight we decided to run a marathon, not a sprint. A smart marathon. “We succeeded,” adds Lina’s coach Veljko Laura.
– She was the only girl from the 46kg category in the quarterfinals, all the others were from the 49kg category, in fact most were from the 53kg category, the Turkish girls too. Lina put them in her pocket. Everything except the Thai women.
Daily News
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