April 15, 2020 – The Croatian Civil Protection Headquarters are still debating whether the country’s top athletes could return to training under special conditions.
Although the response of the Croatian Civil Protection Headquarters on the initiative of the Croatian Olympic Committee (HOO) was expected on Tuesday about continuing training for top athletes under safety conditions, the Director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ) Krunoslav Capak said a unified position of the Headquarter members had not been reached on the subject so far and that the option remained under consideration, reports HRT.
HOO president Zlatko Matesa announced the initiative at a time when speculation was made about postponing the Tokyo Olympics. Now, he has made that view more concrete by the fact that the Sinkovic brothers or Sandra Perkovic and other representatives of individual sports, athletics, sailing, archery, swimming or martial arts, can hold sports training in training facilities only with coaches, and without the presence of spectators.
Aware of the complexity of the current situation, Damir Segota, the head of the HOO Olympic Program, is an advocate of the idea that only beginning Olympians from individual sports can be trained in or at the sites of the parent clubs. In the event the general situation in the country and the world improves during the coronavirus pandemic and the measures currently in force are loosened, it may be permissible that training resumes for Croatian Olympic athletes of the First and Second categories (athletes with international success), who are in the system of the National Olympic Association 220 nationwide. Of course, the other group of athletes should be very patient.
It is not difficult to know who might be affected by the proposal of the Croatian State Office of Sport and the HOO, just by looking at the list of Olympic candidates:
ATHLETICS – Sandra Perkovic, Sara Kolak, Filip Mihaljevic, Bojana Bjeljac
GYMNASTICS – Tin Srbić, Ana Đerek
SAILING – Tonci Stipanovic, Sime and Mihovil Fantela, Elena Vorobjeva
KAYAK / CANOES – Matija Marinic
KARATE – Ivan Kvesic
SWIMMING – Franko Grgic, Marin Mogic
TABLE TENNIS – Andrej Gacina, Tomislav Pucar, Frane Tomislav Kojic
SHOOTING – Josip Glasnovic, Snjezana Pejcic, Petar Gorsa, Miran Maricic
TAEKWONDO – Matea Jelic, Kristina Tomic, Toni Kanaet
ROWING – Damir Martin, Valent and Martin Sinkovic
There are also three teams (national teams) on the list of potential Olympians for Tokyo – handball with 18 representatives, water polo (15 athletes) and basketball (14 athletes). Of course, it is too early to speak about names at a time when the Olympic qualifications have not been completed.
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