She entered the semifinals with “waza-ari” against Moroccan Yatim, only to hold on well against the future golden Kosovo’s Loriana Kuka in the battle for the finals, experiencing defeat only after a few minutes of the “golden score”. In the fight for bronze, Pavić defeated Montenegro's Jovana Peković with ippon.
It was also the conclusion of the third day of Judo competitions at the Mediterranean Games in Oran, with our judokas marking each of those days with a medal - first Ana Viktorija Puljiz (up to 52 kg) with silver and then bronze won by Iva Oberan (up to 63 kg) and Petrunjela Pavić (up to 78 kg).
The other two of our representatives in the medal zone were defeated in bronze medal matches. Ivana Maranić (over 78 kg) lost her waza-ari to Larisa Cerić of BiH, three-time European Champion and third-place finisher at the World Championships. In quarterfinals she defeated Algeria's Asselah, while in the semifinals Turkey's Sayit - the future winner of gold medal - was better than her. Marko Kumrić (up to 100 kg) lost by ”waza-ari“ to France's Agbegnenou, after beating Kosovo’s Zekaj in repechage and previously losing to later winner of silver medal Algerian Boumar in quarterfinals. Marcel Škalec (over 100 kg) lost in the first round of the Games, where Turkey's Ertug was more successful than him.
Our shooting team members Valentina Gustin and Estera Herceg failed to repeat the success of their male colleagues and qualify for the finals of the 10-meter Air Rifle competition. Gustin scored 10th in qualifying with 625.8 points and failed to reach the top-eight finish, decisive for award of medals, by 0.7 points. Herceg finished 17th with a score of 618.2. The best in qualifying was Spain's Paula Grande Martinez with 630.6 points.
Croatian swimmer Ognjen Marić did not make it to the finals of Men’s 100m Backstroke. In qualifying, he reached the score of 56.76 seconds, 2.03 seconds less than his reported time and ranked 13th in qualifying.
On the second day of athletic competitions in Oran, two of our representatives participated in the qualifiers - Mateo Ružić in Men’s 400m and Karlo Videka in Men’s 800m, but they failed to reach the finals. Ružić was sixth in the qualifying group (16th overall) in Men’s 400m with 47.79, and he needed to reach 46.33 to enter the finals. In Men’s 800m qualifiers Videka was seventh in the qualifying group (20th overall) with 1:52.17. To reach the finals in terms of results, he should have scored 1:47.00.
Croatia's national handball team won their second match in the Group A's second appearance. They convincingly defeated the host Algeria with 31-21 (14-8). In the Croatian ranks, the best was Katarina Pavlović with nine goals, five were added by Lana Jarak and four by Tena Petika. After two rounds, Croatia and Spain have a maximum of two wins and those two teams shall decide on the Group A winners on Saturday (7.15pm).
Our basketball players in the 3x3 version won the quarterfinals of the tournament with a 17-12 victory over Egypt. Ivan Vrgoč scored ten points, Mario Rajčić 5 points and Luka Radoš 2 points. On their way to the semifinals, their opponent will be Serbia's national team.
Unfortunately, Croatia's female volleyball players, the defending 2018 Mediterranean Champions, will only play for a comforting seventh place (with Tunisia), after being defeated 1-3 by Greece (25-20, 22-25, 23-25, 19-25) in the fight for fifth place. Mika Grbavica brought the most points (17) to our team, Božana Butigan added fourteen, and Josipa Marković and Martina Šamadan thirteen each. To the contrary, Croatia's male volleyball team faces the Italians on Saturday (5:30 p.m.), which, in case of victory , secures them a silver medal.
After six days of competition at the Mediterranean Games in Oran, Croatia is in 10th place of medal-winning rankings.
Croatian Olympic Committee (COC) congratulates judoka Petrunjela Pavić on winning bronze medal at the Mediterranean Games in Oran!
