Namely, at her first Grand Prix tournament in Rome, Bruna Duvančić won the silver medal in the 49 kg category, bringing Croatia the only spot on the podium, reports Dalmacija Danas.
As a reminder, the Grand Prix is a G6 category tournament and in taekwondo and it is the same as four grand slams in tennis. Furthermore, only 32 invited athletes from each Olympic category come to the tournament. This can only mean one thing – the competition is terribly strong.
For example, at the Rome tournament, the European champion Lena Stojković who competes in the category up to 46 kilograms participated in the category of up to 49 kilograms, and the winners of the world’s most medals in 49 kilograms and 53 kilograms were there, too.
On the way to the final, Bruna Duvančić celebrated against Moroccan Sahib, and in the round of 16, she was better than the two-time Olympic medalist from Rio and Tokyo Tijana Bogdanović. In the quarterfinals, Bruna got revenge against Israeli Semberg for losing in the European Championship semifinals this year. In the semifinals, the young Duvančić was better than Mexican taekwondo artist Souza.
In the final fight, she was stopped only by the Spaniard Cerezo, the Olympic runner-up in Tokyo.
Bruna thus won the European bronze and the Grand Prix silver in just one month and should become an Olympic candidate for the Paris Games next month!
It should also be mentioned that Bruna’s twin sister Ivana is also a taekwondo force to be reckoned with. The twin sisters took home bronze medals in their first senior competition earlier this year! Bruna and Ivana have already been called the successors of the Zaninović sisters.
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