Olympics: Damir Martin wins Croatia’s second bronze medal
- by croatiaweek
- in Sport
Damir Martin (Instagram)
Croatian rower Damir Martin has won bronze in the Men’s singles sculls final at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The 33-year-old from Vukovar who won silver in a photo finish at the 2016 Olympics, took bronze this time round in an incredible finish once again.
Martin was two seconds behind the leading trio in the middle stages of the race, and a similar distance off the lead 500 meters before the finish. But in the dying stages, Martin found that extra energy to push ahead into third and claimed the bronze medal by 15 hundredths of a second.
“Everything was going through my head, I don’t know where to start. I woke up in the morning and saw a lot of messages. Thank you all for your support, this is for all of you, and most of all for my family and coach. Thank you to everyone who followed me, thank you to the media who were with me and supported me when I wasn’t even close to the top,” an emotional Damir Martin told HRT after the race.
Martin, who moved to Zagreb from Vukovar to pursue his rowing career, now has two Olympic silver medals and one bronze.
Greece’s Stefanos Ntouskos won gold, whilst Kjetil Borch from Norway took silver.
Croatia now has four medals, two golds – Matea Jelić (Taekwondo) and the Sinković brothers (Rowing) and two bronze – Martin and Toni Kanaet (Taekwondo).
