[Milan 26]

Lenier Pero is about the same age as Hrgovic and has been less successful so far. Its tough but should be winnable for Hrgovic.

 

Overall today's draws were bad for us. Hrvoje Sep would face top favorite in quarterfinals.

Coric hasn't impressed this year, but there are many players in the field he could have beaten. But he very likely won't beat Simon. Cilic and Draganja would face Melo/Soares in Round 2. Draw for Cilic in singles also could have been better under these circumstances. He can beat everybody except for Murray and Djokovic, but he could also lose in early round. Konjuh's draw could have been worse, but she is the underdog anyway.

 

 

Edited August 4, 2016 by Milan

[Milan 26]

Vlasic will remain a mystery until the competition starts. She apparently is secretly preparing for the Olympics. At least according to her she doesn't have any pain anymore. Would be a shame if such an exceptional athlete would have never won an Olympic gold medal.

 

Kljakovic Gaspic would have been a legit medal contender in the past two years, unfortunately he hasn't had a good year so far. I agree that 470 is our only great hope for a medal in sailing.

 

 

[Milan 26]

vor 4 Minuten schrieb Crolympic:

Dodig and Konjuh would be the best mixed doubles from

 

Maybe, but unfortunately this isn't possible anymore. I also don't know why Darija Jurak is not there. The double Konjuh/Jurak apparently has not been nominated for women's doubles by our federation, otherwise they should be in by now. Shame, we could have had much more than four tennis players in Rio.

[Milan 26]

I haven't heard anything, but if they do, I hope they will nominate Draganja instead of Coric. Draganja is the better doubles player, he has played mixed doubles with Konjuh more recently (I think they reached QF in Wimbledon last year) and their combined ranking would be better than with Coric.

[Milan 26]

vor 9 Minuten schrieb Crolympic:

 

Before qualification period I was hoping that we might qualify in badminton and canoeing, but it didn't happen.

 

Me too. If I'm not mistaken there are still nine of the current Olympic sports in which we have yet to qualify since independence (Archery, Badminton, Field Hockey, Football, Golf, Modern Pentathlon, Rugby sevens, Synchronized Swimming and Triathlon). Qualification in (men's) Football can always happen, but is pretty tough, since only a few Europeans qualify and our under-21 team has never been quite successful. I am not too enthusiastic about the Olympic football tournament anyway. In badminton we had some good female junior players. Maybe Sutara or someone else will progress to be good enough in the future. In Archery and Synchronized swimming we were not that far away from qualification this time.

I guess qualification in Weightlifting is also kind of new, since I think we have had no one else than naturalized Pesalov qualified before.

 

Does anyone know when the draws in Boxing, Judo, Taekwondo, Wrestling, Tennis and Table Tennis will be made?

[Milan 26]

Thanks for the schedule, dcro. But Day 1 is on 6th of August and I think you forgot our Water polo team.

[Milan 26]

I was thinking the same after their match on Saturday. With our current team chances for a medal in tennis are small. As long as Dokovic, Murray, Federer, Nadal, Wawrinka and Nishikori all participate Cilic probably doesn't have much of a chance to win a medal in singles on this surface. And in doubles there are some very strong teams like Melo/Soares, Murray/Murray, Herbert/Mahut, Kubot/Matkowski and the Bryans. With Dodig we would have had a chance, but I doubt that Cilic/Draganja can beat them.

Edited July 18, 2016 by Milan

[Milan 26]

With the rankings she got in the months before the cut off (90-95) this would in fact have been realistic by now. 

Pity that we likely won't have a women's double. Contrary to what I originally thought, there actually was a chance for it since the limit of 86 players per gender has been surpassed anyway and some of the doubles which got an ITF Place have a lower combined ranking than our best possible combination has. Wouldn't surprise me if they didn't even nominate Darija Jurak.

 

Edited July 16, 2016 by Milan

[Milan 26]

vor 4 Stunden schrieb Crolympic:

 Is there any official confirmation of this?

 

No, not yet. It might again take a few days until ITF publishes the updated entry list. Or maybe HOO will say something about it.

 

According to qualification system unused OST invitations should have been reallocated by 10 July. But lets see, I still hope she might be in.

[Milan 26]

Great. Sometimes the unexpected happens.

So that is one more athlete for us and one more sport we are in. Not qualifying in wrestling for me was one of the larger disappointments of this qualifying period.

[Milan 26]

HOO again just mentions Samardzic and Todorovic in swimming. So thats probably it with our swimming "team" at this year's Olympics.

[Milan 26]

So our basketball team saved us from having the smallest Summer Olympics team since 1992 (In 2004 we had 81 competitors). Seems that I was wrong about them, didn't think they could make it. Great job.

 

That is indeed pretty much the end of our qualification hopes. Though I am still hoping for another Invitation in swimming, but I don't expect that to happen anymore. Ana Konjuh should still have a chance to slip into the tournament field, but I am not sure if she would be able to play after injuring her ankle in Wimbledon. Mulabegovic was our last hope for Athletics, but unfortunately he didn't make it.

[Milan 26]

Great news that Maric is in. Finally some luck.

Loncarek and Muzaric are out. Ana Simic was disappointing, too. I was hoping she could have an outside chance for a medal at the Olympics, but it doesn't look good.

Our Basketball team would now have to beat Greece to reach the final (probably against Italy). Its not over yet but I don't think this team has it in them.

[Milan 26]

vor 5 Minuten schrieb prso1000:

Radic and Todorovic if they qualify in one event they can start also in other events if they have the OST

Means e.g. If Radic gets in in 200IM she can swimm 200 Breast as well

 

 

Are you sure this is true?

The qualification system states that "Swimmers invited through OST/”B” Time are only allowed to compete in the events for which they received the FINA invitation."

 

Calic has won his quarterfinal match at the boxing qualification tournament. Too bad this category does only have one qualifier.

[Milan 26]

The fall in number is mainly (though not entirely) due to lower number of qualified teams, but that is also part of the problem. Our Handball and Basketball women didn't do particularly well since the last Olympics.

I also wouldn't expect much more than 73 athletes. 3-4 quotas in Tennis are safe, likely are 1-3 more quotas in Swimming (OST). Still possible is a quota in Diving and Archery. Realistic but unlikely are more qualifiers in Track and Field and the qualification of our Basketball team. And then there are two more qualification tournaments in Boxing. (And possibly 49erFX through reallocation?)

Edited June 11, 2016 by Milan

[Milan 26]

I think a Player must be qualified for either singles or doubles event to take part in mixed doubles. Our best possible combination in women's doubles would be Lucic (57) and Jurak (47). With Konjuh and Jurak it would be 47 and 76. I'm not sure, but I don't think this combined rankings would be good enough to enter the competition.

[Milan 26]

Maybe there is a chance if Lucic made herself available for Fed Cup. I'm not sure if she did this year (and it probably would have to be this year).

 

Konjuh also might get one of the ITF places. But there will surely be players who will skip the Olympics or miss it because of injury. I assume she will be qualified one way or another, if she is healthy herself.

[Milan 26]

Konjuh retired today in her mach against Minella. She apparently still has Problems with her back. Taiwanese Hsieh has overtaken her in the rankings with her win in Marseille SF today. I think now Konjuh can only gain a place in Rio through reallocation.

 

Well, I guess next up for us is the open water swimming qualifier in Setubal. Karla Sitic is our only participant there.

[Milan 26]

Yeah, this qualification campaign is pretty much a mess. We will probably have less than 80 participants in Rio in not more than 15 Sports. I still have hopes for the future as we at least in some sports seem to have some good young athletes. Like Kolak, Mihaljevic, Horvat, Greguric and Markovic in Track and Field, Obrovac and Paut in Swimming, then there is Novakovic in Canoe Sprint, Barbara and Brigita Matic in Judo, Coric, Konjuh and Vekic in Tennis, Saric, Hezonja, Arapovic and Bender in Basketball, Babic and Runtic in Taekwondo, Gustin in Shooting, Rakovac and Pucar in Table Tennis, Mihalic is still young as are Marcela Maric and Maja Boric and even Hrgovic in Boxing. This gives me hope that we will have medal candidates in the future and maybe can make progress in some sports.

 

 

Edited May 27, 2016 by Milan

[Milan 26]

Both our boats at the Rowing qualification regatta are out. I didn't expect them to qualify anway, although I did think they could make the final.

[Milan 26]

Five of our six women Boxers at the World Championship have lost their first match (including Anamarija Marsic). Its a neverending story I guess.

 

Our Swimming is really worse than it was, but there seems to be at least some progress in Diving and Synchronized Swimming. Pity that Domika and Sestan are not qualified. 

[Milan 26]

So no quota in Canoeing. We will probably only be represented in 14 or 15 Sports (compared to 17 in London). I don't think we can make it in Archery and Basketball. In Judo and Tennis at the moment it looks like the worst case too, because only Matic will qualify and in Tennis possibly only Cilic, Coric and Dodig with Konjuh still having a Chance. I remember the times when we were basically only good in team sports, so i thought our sport was developing quite good recently. After all we are a small nation. But all in all this Olympic qualifying is a disappointment to me.

 

 

Edited May 14, 2016 by Milan

[Milan 26]

Am ‎03‎.‎05‎.‎2016 um 07:10 schrieb prso1000:

I don't think we can have two guys in the same category. They will have to chose. I would go with Starcevic. Otherwise good selection.

 

Your're right. And apparently they did choose Starcevic. GR Events will be tomorrow.

[Milan 26]

Seems that Lizatovic (- 59 kg), Etlinger (- 66 kg), Starcevic, Neven Zugaj (both - 75 kg), Nenad Zugaj (- 85 kg) and Lavric (- 130 kg) will participate at the Qualification Tournament in Istanbul. Would be a disappointment if we won't have a wrestler in Rio.

 

Our Handball Team will play against France, Denmark, Qatar, Tunisia and Argentina. Seems to be a tough Group at first sight, but in the other Group are four strong European Teams (Germany, Poland, Sweden and Slovenia) and the host Nation Brazil. Not sure how good Qatar really is though. 

 

 

 

Edited May 3, 2016 by Milan

[Milan 26]

Barbara Matic has a shoulder injury I read a few days ago.