Croatian Sportsman & Sportswoman for 2017 Announced

Tin Srbic & Sandra Perkovic (Instagram)

World discus champion Sandra Perkovic and current world gymnastics champion Tin Srbic have been named Croatian Sportsman and Sportswomen of 2017 on Boxing Day.

Perkovic, who is a two-time Olympic and a four-time European champion, won her second World Championship title in 2017 in London in August.

Perkovic won gold at the IAAF World Championships in London with a throw of 70.31 metres in the final.

Sandra Perkovic (Instagram)

Her victory, at the same stadium where she won Olympic gold in 2012, meant Perkovic became a double Olympic champion (2012, 2016), a four-time European champion (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016), and a two time World champion (2013, 2017).

In October Croatian gymnast Tin Srbic caused a huge upset to win gold at the 47th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Montreal, Canada.

Srbic beat Olympic and double world champion Epke Zonderland, as well as European champion Pablo Braegger to win the gold medal in the Men’s Horizontal Bar final.

Tin Srbic (PR)

The 21-year-old from Zagreb, who was ranked third in qualifications, finished in the No.1 spot with 14,433 points, exactly 200 points more than second-placed Zonderland from Holland. Bart Deurloo finished third with 14,200 points.

Perkovic and Srbic were last week named the best sportsman and sportswomen of 2017 by the Croatian Olympic Committee, and now today in Zagreb they were presented with the awards for best Croatian sportswoman and sportsman in 2017 in the traditional annual poll organised by the Croatian sports daily “Sportske Novosti”.

The best female team in 2017 went to the Croatian crossbow team consisting of Valentina Pereglin, Sanja Komar and Nikolina Komar, who won the world title this year.

Croatia won the world championships in 2017 (Photo: HVS)

The Croatian men’s water polo team, which won the world championship this year in Budapest, were named the best male team of 2017.