It has been an exceptional year for Croatian athletics and the achievements of their leading athletes were celebrated at the annual Croatian Athletics Gala held in Zagreb on Saturday.
Croatia has a population of just over four million people but their athletes won half of the throwing events on the women’s programme at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Sandra Perkovic cemented her reputation as the most dominant discus thrower of the century by retaining her Olympic discus title while Sara Kolak added to her country’s title haul with a surprise victory in the javelin.
Perkovic, who also won her fourth European title in Amsterdam in July, was the odds-on favourite in the discus but her path to her second gold medal was fraught with near disaster. In a competition affected by heavy rain, she only qualified for the final with her third throw and she began the final with two fouls before sealing the title in the third round with 69.21m - the only valid throw of her series.
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Perkovic ended the season without defeat and the 26-year-old, who looks set to dominate the event for years to come, was named Female Athlete of the Year once again.
Kolak’s star began to rise when she won a surprise bronze medal at the European Athletics Championships with a national record of 63.50m and in an Olympic final which lacked a standout favourite, Kolak seized the opportunity by improving her record to 66.18m in the fourth round to defeat an experienced field including reigning two-time champion and world record-holder Barbora Spotakova.
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Kolak was duly named Female Athlete of the Year in the under-23 division. The 21-year-old still has one full season left in this category and she could be one of the stars at next year’s European U23 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
On the men’s side, world indoor shot put bronze medallist Filip Mihaljevic was named Male Athlete of the Year while up-and-coming hammer thrower Matija Greguric - a former world youth champion - claimed the under-23 award. Hrvoje Cukman and Dora Filipovic were named Junior Athletes of the Year.
Special guests at the Gala included European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen, European Athletics Vice President Dobromir Karamarinov and IAAF Vice President Sergey Bubka. They all received special plaques of recognition from the President of the Croatian Athletics Federation, Ivan Vestic.
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