TCN brings you the itinerary of Croatian athletes’ participation at the Olympics (all times are in Central European Time Zone)
August 16. 2016 should be one to mark in the history of Croatian sport. Six Croatian contenders for Olympic medals will be in action today, one is already secured, and a few more are a real possibility.
16.20 Athletics
Sandra Perković was always expected to win the medal in Rio. Last night, she gave her fans quite a scare in the qualifiers, as her first two attempts were not valid. The surface was wet, and the competition was delayed for half an hour due to the storm. In the third attempt, she threw the best result of the qualifiers, and in today’s finals, she is a favorite for the gold.
18.00 Boxing
Filip Hrgović will enter the Olympic ring in today’s quarter-final match versus the Cuban boxer Leiner Eunice Pero. The Croatian super-heavyweight champion will secure a medal if he wins, as there is no bronze medal match in Olympic boxing.
18.05 Sailing
Croatian sailors are the story of the day. They failed so many times in the past, and won so many fourth places, but today, the story gets a happy twist in the plot. Tonči Stipanović already secured the silver medal in Laser class and is a favorite for the gold. His medal race was to be sailed yesterday, but was postponed due to the bad weather and will be staged today. Should there be one more day of bad weather, it will be canceled, and the Croatian will be awarded the gold.
Ivan Kljaković Gašpić will sail the medal race of the Finn class, and he is defending the third position he holds at the moment.
Fantela and Marenić sailed to the Marina Da Gloria yesterday, but as the storm hit the area, they had an accident, and their boat’s mast broke. They spent the evening changing it, but if all goes as planned, they could secure the gold medal in the last of the races which are rescheduled for today.
20.10. Water polo
The Barracudas will face Brazil in the quarter-final match of the Olympic water polo tournament. Brazil’s coach is Ratko Rudić, arguably the world’s best coach and the former leader of the Croatian team. He won the gold medal with Croatia at the London Olympics and is surely the biggest threat to the Croatian team’s ambition to get the medal in Rio. Luckily for Croatia, player quality is what is more important, and in that segment, Croatia is far better than Brazil. They are expected to be up to the task and qualify for the semi-finals.
