On the first day of the competition, the Croatia taekwondo team reached the gold medal in Sofia thanks to 19-year-old Lena Stojković!
Lena defeated Finn Tammila 22-2 in the first round in the category up to 46 kilograms. She went on to achieve an upset in the quarterfinals with an 18-8 victory against Turkey’s Yildirim, the current European champion, winner of an incredible seven world and European medals in senior competition, and a competitor in Tokyo this summer in the category up to 49 kilograms.
HTK
In the semifinals, Lena was dominant against Israeli Rivka Bayech with 28-8, and in the grand final, she defeated the Russian Larisa Medvedeva with 18-10 after another phenomenal fight. The total point difference of 86-28 speaks enough about the young Split woman’s superiority in Bulgaria.
With this gold medal, Lena completed her collection of medals in all three age categories. Recall, Lena won bronze at the European Championships as a cadet, while in her junior internship, she won bronze at the Youth Olympic Games and world bronze.
HTK
Lena started practicing taekwondo in her kindergarten days and was welcomed by coach Veljko Laura in Blatine, Split. Together with Veljko, she reached the fourth big medal in her career at only 19 years old.
Kristina Tomić also competed on the first day of the European Championship. The evident Olympic candidate lost to Romanian Musteate 29-21 in the first round in the 49 kg category. It should be noted that Tomić has diabetes and that it is certainly not easy to lose five kilograms three months before the Olympic Games, where the Osvita member certainly has the maximum focus. For Tomić, the European Championship was, after all, just a training run for what follows in July.
Bravo, Lena!
Source: Gol.hr
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