The Karate National team of Montenegro won five medals at the European Championship for cadets, juniors and young seniors. The championship took place from February 7 to 9, in Budapest. Montenegrin National Team improved its performance compared to last year’s result when it won two medals, it was said at the Montenegro’s Karate Federation press conference, held at the Sports and Culture Center of the University of Montenegro.
The president of the Karate Federation of Montenegro, Ivan Krstajić, congratulated all the competitors on the achieved results and thanked the team, sponsors and the Ministry of Education for its support.
“We have confirmed that karate is a sport number one in Montenegro. We are not talking about one, but three age categories. For the first time, we have brought home a medal in KATA from the European Championship, which has a special meaning for us. It is a confirmation of our continuous work. The championship featured 1155 contestants from 52 states, and we competed with 32 competitors. Only eight countries have won more medals than us”, states Krstajić.
The best results have been achieved by Vladimir Mijač who won silver medal in the male under-21 Kumite -67kg category, Bojan Bošković who won silver medal in Junior Male Kumite -68kg and Predrag Smolović, who also won silver medal in U21 Male Kumite +86kg. Cadets Emre Saljiu and Andrija Danilović achieved great results as well, winning bronze medals in Cadet Kumite Male -52, and -63kg respectively. “We were on the top of our game in every sense of the word-from competitors who were eager to win, coaches to every single member of our expedition. The youngest competitors, who debuted in the championship, showed that they can be seriously counted on. The U21 confirmed their quality. We have a challenging year ahead of us, the European Championship and qualification tournament for Tokyo. I do believe that at least one competitor from our team can pave the way for Olympics in Tokyo”, says Dragoljub Fatić, the director of our national team.