ZAGREB, Dec 31 (Hina) - The most important event for Croatian athletes in 2000 was the Olympic Games in Sydney. Croatian representatives won one gold and one bronze medal. Thus Croatia finished 48th in the overall standings according
to the won medals at the Sydney Games that drew 10,200 athletes from 199 countries.
ZAGREB, Dec 31 (Hina) - The most important event for Croatian
athletes in 2000 was the Olympic Games in Sydney.
Croatian representatives won one gold and one bronze medal. Thus
Croatia finished 48th in the overall standings according to the won
medals at the Sydney Games that drew 10,200 athletes from 199
countries.#L#
The gold medal was won by a weight-lifter, Nikolay Peshalov in the
category up to 62 kilograms. Peshalov lifted 352 kilos, equalling
the world record.
The other Olympic medal for Croatia was won by the coxed eights at
the Olympic rowing competition, who finished the final race third.
Ivana Brkljacic, the world junior champion in the throwing of the
hammer, was the only Croatian athlete to enter the finals of track-
and-field sports at the Sydney Olympic Games.
During the world junior championship in Chile, another young
Croatian athlete - Blanka Vlasic - also won the gold medal in the
high-jumping competition.
Following a ten-month-long break owing to a serious knee injury,
Croatia's alpine skier, Janica Kostelic, came back in the World Cup
to win first five slalom races in November and December. After
finishing the giant-slalom race as the seventh in Semmering,
Austria, on Saturday, this girl, who will celebrate her 19th
birthday on 5 January, took the lead in the overall standings of the
World Cup.
2000 was very successful for Croatian swimmers, although it was
only Gordan Kozulj who reached the finals at the Olympics.
Prior to the Sydney Games, Kozulj became the European vice-champion
at the 200-metre backstroke in the 50-metre pool. He won the world
title in the same event but in the 25-metre pool at the Athens World
Contest where he finished the second in the 100-metre backstroke.
Another swimmer, Ante Maskovic, won the gold medal in 50-metre
backstroke at the European Championship in the 25-metre pool.
Motorist Niko Pulic won the European title in mountainous races for
the second consecutive year.
Junior Lefevre brought the gold medal from the World Karate
Tournament in Munich.
Table-tennis players, Zoran Primorac and Tamara Boros, gained the
silver and bronze medal respectively at the European Championships
in Bremen.
A water-polo club 'Jug' attained the European LEN Cup, whereas the
handball team 'Metkovic' won the European EHF Cup.
(hina) ms