Bosnia and Herzegovina Men’s Masters team won a gold medal in sprint category at the R-4 World Rafting Championships.
The victorious crew that took the brightest medal consisted of: Igor Kuzmanović, Dragan Bjelić, Nebojša Tadić, Andrej Zamolo and Goran Pašić as a reserve.
They came first across the finish line in 73.14 seconds and surpassed the Brazilian national team, which was only 0.78 seconds behind. The Czech Republic finished third with a time of 74.23 seconds.
– This rarely happens. We participated in a lot of World Championships and proved our quality at them, but we never won a medal. It was about time for this to happen, and at that on our home turf as well. We needed this win in the first discipline to unburden ourselves so we can continue competing in other disciplines calmer and more inspired. The track is a lottery and you can waste a lot of time any moment if the team is not totally focused on the track. We knew we were the best in the sprint, but it all depends on how you run the race. It all depends on those 10 meters of White Water, where the water works a miracle and takes you to the shore within minutes. It is long overdue for us to win a medal, and our wish finally came true thanks to regular training and determination. Now our appetites have grown, we also have great chances in Head-to-Head, where we are perhaps even bigger favourites. In the slalom, we will see what will happen and then the descent on Tara, where we are the favourites again. It is interesting that all our crew members live in the same municipality in Banja Luka – Borik. We all fitted in the team wonderfully. Everything, from start to finish, down to the last stroke went as it should and we deservedly won first place – said Kuzmanović.
Official results:
Sprint: Men’s Master
1. Bosnia and Herzegovina 73.14 seconds
2. Brazil 73.92
3. Czech Republic 74.23
4. Costa Rica 75.12
5. Argentina 75.73
6. Slovakia 78.73
7. Romania 81.17
8. Hungary 81.83
9. United Kingdom 83.07
10. Latvia 85.31
Sprint: Men’s Open
1. Brazil 71.04 seconds
2. Croatia 72.24
3. Argentina 72.61
4. Japan 73.83
5. Czech Republic 74.39
6. Serbia 74.76
7. Kazakhstan 75.71
8. Slovenia 75.82
9. Bosnia and Herzegovina 76.10
10. United Kingdom 77.87
11. Australia 78.16
12. Germany 78.59
13. Romania 79.21
14. Hungary 86.03
15. Mongolia 88.15
Sprint: Men U23
1. Czech Republic 73.68 seconds
2. Australia 77.30
3. Romania 77.77
4. Costa Rica 77.98
5. Japan 78.64
6. Slovenia 78.86
7. Croatia 83.98
8. Bosnia and Herzegovina 91.55
Sprint: Men U19
1. Croatia 78.37 seconds
2. Czech Republic 84.89
Sprint: Women Master
1. Czech Republic 80.80 seconds
2. Canada 81.10
3. Slovakia 85.26
4. Argentina 86.50
5. Indonesia 88.87
6. Mongolia 137.43
Sprint: women’s open
1. USA 79.08 seconds
2. Japan 80.98
3. Australia 82.63
3. Argentina 82.63
5. Czech Republic 83.43
6. Canada 84.19
7. Croatia 84.22
8. Hungary 85.09
9. Slovakia 85.12
10. United Kingdom 87.35
11. Bulgaria 91.01
12. Romania 97.99
13. Bosnia and Herzegovina 101.20
14. Mongolia 108.63
Sprint: U23 Women
1. Canada 80.97 seconds
2. Japan 87.55
3. Slovakia 89.69
4. Indonesia 163.60
Sprint: U19 Women
1. USA 86.61 seconds
2. Czech Republic 98.53