XXXI. Summer Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro - Day 4, 9th August, 2016

The day started with the rowing semifinals. First Nenad Beđik and Miloš Vasić were in race in the first run in men’s pair.

They finished 5th clocking 6:31.00. This was enough for Final B, which will take part on Wednesday at 13:00 CET for Place 7-12.
It was the same result for the Šljukić-Marjanović duo. They were also racing in the first run, they also finished at the 5th place (6:27.66). They could also qualify to Final B for Place 7-12.

Velimir Stjepanović couldn’t qualify to the semifinals of the men’s 100 m freestyle. He finished at the 32th place as a tie with Park Tae-hwan from South Korea.

(photos: Facebook/Olimpijski komitet Srbije)

XXXI. Summer Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro - Day 2, 7th August, 2016

The rowing events must be cursed. Yesterday the whole event was postponed due to bad weather. It was so windy in the bay and the water was waving so hard that the repechages and qualifyings could not get started. So the Beđik-Vasić and the Šljukić-Marjanović duos will have to perform on Monday afternoon CET.

At the tennis fields Viktor Troicki was defeated by Andy Murray at the men’s singles. The game finished with 0:2 for the Englishman (3:6, 2:6), the Olympic Games have ended for Troicki.

Viktor Troicki and Andy Murray

(photo: mondo.rs)

Nenad Zimonjić with Boris Becker watching the game between Novak Đoković and Juan Martin Del Potro. For everyone’s shock the Argentinian won over Đoković and qualified to the next round

(photo: Facebook/Olimpijski komitet Srbije)

At swimming, Velimir Stjepanović could get to the qualifying of the men’s 200 m freestyle, but he finished 13th, he could not make it to the final.

One more thing that was missed out from yesterday’s report, cyclist Ivan Stević couldn’t finish the race yesterday. There’s no info about why he had to give it up.

XXXI. Summer Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro - Day 1, 6th August, 2016

Partizan’s athletes had a struggling start at the Olympics. The first event of the first day was shooting, female 10 m air rifle,  where Andrea Arsović was expected to win a medal. Instead she finished at the 26th place, she couldn’t even get close to reach the final.

Andrea Arsović at the qualifying of the 10 m air rifle

Later Arsović talked very bitterly to Mondo. She said she had stage fright and it didn’t calm down, so she couldn’t find her usual pace. On Thursday comes her other discipline, 50 m rifle in 3 positions, she wants to focus on that now.

Then a switch to the swimming pool, where the Serbian water polo team incl. Dušan Mandić, Filip Filipović and Nikola Jakšić

yes, yes, there were the Pijetlović-brothers, too

clashed with Hungarians right in the first round.
It was not easy at all. The Hungarian team had a blitzkrieg, winning the first quarter to 3:5. At the half-time they were ahead to 6:10. Serbian goalkeeper Branislav Mitrović was mostly just watching the action in a quiet and sad manner. He was substituted by Gojko Pijetlović for the second half, that was the point when the Serbian team sped up. The standing was 9:12 for the third quarter. Ćuk, Mandić, Filipović and the others kept on scoring, Pijetlović saved as if his life would have depended on it. 7 seconds before the end the standing was 12:13. After hitting the crossbar the ball got back to the Serbian team. Filipović wasted no time, he grabbed it, shot and scored a huge goal, equalizing 4 seconds before the end buzz, finishing the game with 13:13.

Dušan Mandić during the game

Filip Filipović shots...

...and scores!

Then came rowing, where Heat 3 of the men’s pair was surely one of the weirdest heats of the entire Games. The event was placed to Copacabana, and when it was the turn of the Beđik-Vasić duo, there was a very heavy wind in the bay and the ocean was waving.
The heat started by default with a fail, though it was impossible to see from the slow motion replay which boat wanted to start the race too early. As an extra, the Serbian boat was leaning very heavily to left, almost crossing the line to the other track, where the Italian duo were waiting for the start. If I could see well, something was wrong with the rudder, nevertheless finally everything was put in order. The race started and until 1500 metres Beđik and Vasić massively kept the 3rd place. (The Hungarian boat on the 4th place was behind them with at least half kilometre.) Though at 1000 metres something was wrong, the Serbian boat was leaning very much on the rope between the tracks. Then at 1500 metres all we could see was the Serbian boat being turned over, while Beđik and Vasić were swimming around it, being rather desperate.
The other duo, Andrija Šljukić and Marko Marjanović finished 4th at Heat 1 of the double sculls. Both Beđik-Vasić and Šljukić-Marjanović will compete in the repenchange on Sunday as a chance to get to the qualifyings.

At the tennis fields Ana Ivanović was quickly eliminated by Carla Suarez Navarro. The Spaniard won to 1:2 against her (6:2, 1:6, 2:6), so the Olympic Games have finished for Ivanović.
In men’s double Nenad Zimonjić (paired with Novak Đoković) won against the Croatian duo Čilić-Draganja to 0:2 (2:6, 2:6), they qualified to the next round.

Ana Ivanović

Zimonjić (left) and Đoković celebrate after their victory

(photo: mondo.rs)

At the heats of the men’s 400 m freestyle swimming Velimir Stjepanović finished at the 7th place in his heat, which was very far from being able to get to the qualifyings. It’s not such a big tragedy, as Stjepanović’s main discipline is 200 m freestyle, he probably focuses more on that.

Velimir Stjepanović

The last event of the day was the basketball game between Venezuela and Serbia, which took place at 3.30 am CET on Sunday. The Serbian team with Bogdan Bogdanović, Stefan Birčević, Milan Mačvan and Miroslav Raduljica (and Saša Đorđević on the bench) swept Venezuela away with 62:86. Meanwhile the French team with Joffrey Lauvergne was defeated by Australia to 87:66.

Bogdan Bogdanović

(photo: nbcolympics.com)

(unmarked photos: Facebook/Olimpijski komitet Srbije)

Velimir Stjepanović won bronze medal

Velimir Stjepanović won bronze medal at the 25m Swimming World Championship in Doha, Qatar in 400m freestyle. The gold medal was won by Hungarian Péter Bernek with 3:34.32

no, not happy

second was James Guy from Great Britain (3:36.35). Velja's time was 3:38.17.

(photo: telegraf.rs)

Svaka čast!

Velimir Stjepanović is Athlete of the Year

Esquire magazine’s year-ending vote for Athlete of the Year is won by Partizan’s swimmer Velimir Stjepanović.

(photo: hotsport.rs)

Much better photo detected:

(source: b92.net)

Two silver medals by Velimir Stjepanović

Partizan’s young swimmer phenomenon Velimir Stjepanović won two silver medals at the swimming world cup in Moscow. The first medal was earned in 200m freestyle, where Australian swimmer Thomas Fraser-Holmes won the competition with 1:42.98. He was followed by Stjepanović, his time is 1:43.92.
He won the second silver in 200m backstroke. He was overtaken only by Christian Diener from Germany, who won with 1:50.96. Partizan’s swimmer got to the finish with 1:55.84, third was Nikita Babchenko from Russia, with 1:57.60.

BRAVO!

Stjepanović's new gold medal

Velimir Stjepanović, swimmer of PK Partizan

it feels so good to write it down

won gold in men's 200m freestyle at the European Championship in Berlin with 1:45.78. He broke not just his own record with it, but the Serbian national record as well. Behind him at the second place is Paul Biedermann from Germany (1:45.80), third is Frenchman Yannick Agnel (1:46.65).

If there's video coverage, I'll update the post.
Until then here's a very happy Stjepanović.

(photo: mozzartsport.com)

Update: here's a video

Velimir Stjepanović is European champion!

Serbian freestyle swimmer Velimir Stjepanović won the gold at the 400m freestyle at the Berlin LEN Swimming European Championship. PK Partizan's 21-year-old swimmer won with 3:45.66.

(photo: mozzartsport.com)

Second was Italian Andrea d'Arrigo with 3:46.91, at third place arrived Englishman Jay Lelliot (3:47.50).

BRAVO!