Croatian Paralympian Mikela Ristoski won the bronze medal at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, taking third place in the long jump in the T20 category.
The Croatian flag bearer at this year’s opening ceremony and the defending champion from Rio 2016 jumped 5.46 meters for the bronze medal. The gold medal was won by Poland’s Karolina Kucharczyk with a personal record of 6.03 meters. The silver medal went to Russia and Alexandra Ruchkina, who was just three centimeters better than Ristoski.
The AKOSI Medulin member increased from jump to jump, apart from the last, but failed to make up for the three-centimeters gap for the silver.
“I am happy with the medal I won, but not with the jumps. We waited a long time, so I cooled down a bit. However, I am happy for the medal I won,” said the Pula native.
Mikela Ristoski competes in T20 classification track and field jump events. This is her second bronze medal at the Paralympic Games, after placing 3rd at the 2012 Paralympics in London. Ristoski has also won many World and European Championships medals and is even the World champion in two disciplines – the long jump (2011) and the triple jump (2015).
This is the fifth medal for Croatia at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo!
Croatian Athletics won two medals at the Paralympics in Tokyo before Ristoski’s bronze – Velimir Šandor and Ivan Katanušić in the discus throw. In addition, the Croatia table tennis team of Anđela Mužinić and Helena Dretar Karić won the bronze medal earlier this week.
Source: HRT
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