Zagreb native Lana Petranović and Russian national Antonio Laudelino Souza Kordejru will represent Croatia at the European and World Championships in the sports couple category, after reaching the norm at the ISU Challenge series competition in Warsaw, where they came in fourth
It is a historical day for Croatian ice skating, as 16-year-old Lana and 23-year-old Antonio became the first sports couple who will represent Croatia at the World Championship, while their excellent performance in Warsaw brought them the norm for the European Championship to be held in January 2017 in Ostrava. Lana and Antonio have joined Nicholas Vrdoljak who also made norm on Saturday in Minsk for the World Championship to be held in March 2017 in Helsinki, as Slobodna Dalmacija reported on November 20, 2016.
The young Zagreb native and Russian with a Croatian passport held the fifth place after the short programme at the tough ISU Challenge in Warsaw, while in the free program on Sunday they earned the third best result and in total ended fourth with 138.32 points.
The first place went to Italians Valentina Marchei and Ondrej Hotarek, ahead of the American couple Chelsea Liu – Brian Johnson and German Combination Minerva Fabienne Hase – Nolan Seegert. The success of the Croatian couple is even greater considering this was their first official joint performance.
The performances of Lana Petranović and Antonio Laudelino Souza Kordejru in Warsaw and Nicholas Vrdoljak in Minsk are the best possible prelude to the oldest world ice skating competition, the Zlatna Pirueta of Zagreb, to be held from 8 to 10 December.
