She made the winning shot in the third series, and with 64.71 m Tolj improved her previous best personal result by 1.32 meters. Portugal's Liliana Da Silva Ca won silver medal in 63.62m and Turkey's Özlem Becerek won bronze with 61.96m. This way, Marija Tolj retained the title of Mediterranean Champion in Discus throw in Croatia, "defending" thus the gold medal won by Sandra Perković in Tarragona in 2018.
In team sports, male and female volleyball players gave us a mixed mood in the fight for semifinals, female handball players opened the tournament well, which cannot be said about male basketball players in the 3x3 version. Men's volleyball team entered the semifinals of the Mediterranean Games, following a convincing 3-0 quarterfinal victory over Greece (25-19, 25-19, 25-22). Their opponent in the Saturday’s semifinals will be Italy.
Unfortunately, female Croatian volleyball players will not defend the sensational Mediterranean gold from Tarragona. Their path to the medal fight was closed by the Italian female players with a 3-0 quarterfinal victory (25-18, 25-16, 25-19).
Croatia's National Female Handball Team started performance in the Group A of the Mediterranean tournament in Oran with a 28-26 (17-14) victory over Tunisia. Katarina Pavlović was the most effective in our team with twelve goals, Tena Japundža added six, while Amal Hamrouni was the best Tunisian with eight goals. Nenad Šoštarić's picks will play against Algeria in the second round (on Friday), with Spain also in the Group A. The first two teams from Group A and B will advance to the semifinals.
Croatia's National Male Basketball Teams 3x3 started performance in the Oran tournament with a narrow loss 16-17 to Greece (Group D) but was defeated 14-15 by Tunisia in the second match on the same day. Egypt is also in the group, which our basketball players must beat in the third round to maintain their chances of reaching the quarterfinals (with Greece's victory over Tunisia). Two top-ranked teams in the group will advance to the quarterfinals.
Our archery team member Alen Remar failed to make it through to quarterfinals. He beat Egypt's Aly Abdelbar with 7-3 in the first round, only to be beaten 6-0 by Italy's Federico Musolesi in the Round-of-16.
Maria Tolj's athletic gold on the last day of June is the 12th Croatian medal in Oran in total, the third gold. With medal collection that also includes four silver and five bronze medals. Croatia remains ninth in the medal-winning country rankings.
Croatian Olympic Committee (COC) congratulates Marija Tolj on winning gold medal in Discus throw at the Mediterranean Games in Oran!
