Serbia Wins 24 Medals at Kickboxing World Championships
Serbia's young national team won 12 gold, five silver and seven bronze medals in Lido di Jesolo, finishing second overall behind Kazakhstan and ahead of Azerbaijan.
Serbia brought home 24 medals from the kickboxing world championships in Lido di Jesolo, Italy: 12 gold, five silver and seven bronze. More than 3,000 fighters competed, making it the largest world championship in the sport to date, and the young Serbian national team finished second in the team standings.
Exactly half of the medals are gold. Serbia’s squad reached the top step of the podium 12 times in a field of more than 3,000 competitors.
Who finished ahead of Serbia, and who was behind?
Kazakhstan won the team standings, Serbia took second place and Azerbaijan was third. The event ran from September 18 to 27, and organizer WAKO classifies it as the world championships for children, cadets and juniors.
Reports on the result say only that young athletes won the medals, without breaking them down by age group. It is therefore not specified how many of the medals came from the children’s category and how many from cadets and juniors.
Who won the medals?
The medalists, according to the list published by medal color:
- Gold (12): Masa Jovanovic, Srbija Simonovic, Milos Toskovic, Muhamed Dupljak, Tadija Marcic, Mateja Stojanovic, Jovana Damjanovic, Atila Velickovic, Jovan Stevanovic, Petar Dinic, Sonja Vuksic and Nada Nikolic
- Silver (5): Aleksa Aleksov, Nikola Rankovic, Sergej Vojvodic, Mirjana Mastilovic and Nina Damjanovic
- Bronze (7): Filip Jokic, Zorana Jovicic, Nada Rutonic, Nikolija Nikolic, Masa Damjanovic, Milan Milosevic and Branko Djordjevic
The list contains 24 different names, so every medal belongs to a different athlete and nobody is mentioned twice. Gold outnumbers silver by more than two to one, 12 to five, and there are seven bronzes, two more than silvers.
What does the federation say?
Kickboxing Federation of Serbia president Dusko Basrak told Tanjug he was pleased with the team’s performance, and he also praised the coaching staff:
“I am extremely pleased with the performance of our athletes, because they represented Serbia in a fantastic way. Coaches Sinisa Vladimirovic, Milan Cvetkovic, Rade Radomirovic, Aleksandar Topic, Ivan Rankovic and Dejan Pavic did a great job. I think there is no reason to worry about the future of Serbian kickboxing.”
Six coaches led the national team, and Basrak named every one of them. He gave his assessment of the future of Serbian kickboxing after the team finished second behind Kazakhstan and ahead of Azerbaijan, with 12 golds.
