Best sportsmen/sportswomen and the team(s) of your country!

[vatroslav_cro]

This thread was in the old forum, I hoped that the admins could add it to this one too, but ok ...that's why I will start it again, because my opinion is that the people will find it interesting.. ..so people, who love and follow sports, success of your sportsmen, sportswomen, squads(teams) etc! Who are the best of them and in what disciplines they are the best? Where did they achieve their best results? And when? Was it in the Olympic games, World championships, European championships? Only the CURRENT best results are required (in this year, maybe in the last year or eventually two-three years ago), not what happened, for example, 10-15 years ago ! So we are talking about the current ones only!

Since I started the thread, I think it is not suitable that I start also with the best results of my country's best results, I will tell it later. So please, "the stage is yours"

 

[Chaklunka]

I like figure skating, tennis, ski jumping and biathlon. But when it's about Ukrainians, I'm ready to watch other kinds of sport too . So as for me, the best Ukrainian sportsmen of today are Alyona Bondarenko (tennis) and Tetyana Volosozhar/Stanislav Morozov (figure skating). I liked the skating of Elena Gruhina/Ruslan Goncharov but they have finished their skating career. And, of course, as all the patriots of Ukrainian sport, I like Klitchko brothers and Andriy Schevchenko . They are above all the ratings.

 

[Scooby]

In this moment, the most popular Serbian athletes are: Novak ?okovi? and jelena Jankovi? (tennis), Milorad ?avi? and Na?a Higl (world swimming champions), National Football Team (especially defenders Nemanja Vidi? and Branislav Ivanovi?), shooters Andrija Zlati? and Jasna Šekari?....

 

[No Name]

Our first match in the World Cup against Netherlands is approaching, and since our team has been making quite a bad figure in recent test-matches (against both Australia and South-Africa), there has been a lot of talking about our top-player: Nicklas Bendtner (Arsenal FC). He's been injured but luckily he seems to be ready for monday. He has been the main topic of most of our media-coverage recently.

Other big sports-people we have:

Caroline Wozniacki (tennis)

Daniel Agger (football, Liverpool FC)

Christian Poulsen (football, Juventus)

Mikkel Kessler (boxing)

 

[vatroslav_cro]

Now I'll introduce some croatian sportsmen, and sportswomen, few of them for now(single disciplines)

BLANKA VLAŠI? (athletics, high jump)

Well.. most of you probably know (heard of) her.
The current world champion outdoor and indoor, twice in row (winner in the world athletics championships in Osaka 2007 and Berlin 2009, then the world athletics indoor championships in Valencia 2008 and Doha 2010). The higest jump and personal record: 2,08 m (Zagreb 2009), so she is very close now to the world record of Štefka Kostadinova, Bulgaria (2,10 m).

IVICA KOSTELI? (alpine ski racer)

The best male croatian athlete for the last year. Elder brother of overall world champion Janica Kosteli?, croatian ski legend) The best results in his career are two silver medals in Olympic games in Vancouver 2010 (slalom and combined), silver medals in combined in 2006 (Olympic games in Turin - traditional combined).

MARIN ?ILI? (tenniser)

Member of a Davis cup team, and currently the best male tennis player of Croatia, ranked 12th in the world ATP list. Unfortunately he lost in the 1st round of Wimbledon, defeated by Florian Mayer (Germany). His best results of this year are the victory in Chennai open tour, India and the semi final of Australian open.

DUJE DRAGANJA (swimmer)

Our best male swimmer, a winner of a silver medal in the men's 50 m freestyle in Olymic games in Athens 2004, the same discipline and same medal in 2005 (world aquatics championship in Montreal, Canada). In 2006 and 2008 he won a gold medal in 50 m freestyle. Unfortunately, in Olympic games in Beijing he didn't reach any medal. Generally, in the last year he was better in the short tracks than in the long ones. Hopefully he will give his best in the forthcoming European aquatics championship in Budapest, Hungary which will be held in August.

This is all for now, later on I will send more pics and introductions, there are still many of them!

 

[goktengri]

Basketballers:

Mehmet Okur (Utah Jazz)

Ersan Ilyasova (Milwaukee Bucks)

Hedo Turkoglu (Toronto Raptors)

Footballers:

Tuncay Sanli (Stoke City)

Hamit Altintop and Halil Altintop (Halil - Eintracht Frankfurt,Hamit - Bayern Munich)

-----

Yasemin Dalkilic (Freediver)

Sahika Ercumen (Freediver)

Tugba Karademir (figure skater)

Pemra Ozgen (Tennis)

Best team:

Fenerbahce SK

 

[vatroslav_cro]

Two the best athletes from Croatia more:

EMIL MILIHRAM (canoeist, wild waters)

http://www.croatianworld.net/Letters/Emil_Milihram.jpg

Champion of the Wildwater world cup after winning a classic race in Lofer, Austria, June 2010. In the overall standings, he is at the first place. He also won the Worldcup in Czech Republic 2006 (classical long race), so he defended the title now!

SANDRA PERKOVI? (discus thrower)

http://www.ask-split.hr/portal/images/s ... rkovic.jpg

Discus thrower, golden medalist from the European championships in athletics in Barcelona, 28 th of July - 64, 67 m thrown the discus! Only 20 years old.

 

[Jukica]

@Vatroslav, don't forget Natko Zrn?i?-Dim from alpine skiing what a pity Janica Kosteli? retired

 

[Israeliboy]

[center:17eb1idd]ISRAEL[/center:17eb1idd]

Tennis: Shahar Pe'er

Shahar Pe'er (pronounced /????h?r ?pe?.?r/; Hebrew: ??? ??? shahar pe'er, IPA: [??a?a? pe??e?]; born May 1, 1987, Jerusalem) is an Israeli professional tennis player. Her career-high singles ranking is World No. 14, which she achieved on June 7, 2010. This is the highest ranking ever achieved by an Israeli.

Her best Grand Slam singles result has been reaching the quarter-finals at the 2007 Australian Open and the 2007 US Open. She has also reached the Women's doubles final at the 2008 Australian Open with Victoria Azarenka. Pe'er has won five WTA Singles titles and three WTA Doubles titles. As of July 12, 2010, Pe'er is ranked World No. 16 in singles and No. 39 in doubles

Basketball: Omri Casspi, , Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C

Omri Moshe Casspi (Hebrew: ????? ??? ?????) (born June 22, 1988) is a professional basketball player who was drafted 23rd overall in the 2009 NBA Draft by the Sacramento Kings, making him the first Israeli to be selected in the first round of the draft.

He is 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 m) tall, and plays at the small forward position. With his debut with the Kings in 2009, Casspi became the first Israeli to play in an NBA game.

Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. (Hebrew name: "?.?. ???? ?????? ??-????", transliterated into English as: Maccabi "Electra" Tel Aviv B.C.) is a professional Israeli basketball team that is based in Tel Aviv. The club plays in the Israeli and European basketball first leagues. It is the basketball division of the Maccabi Tel Aviv sports club. From July 1, 2008, the team's sponsor has been Israeli electronics conglomerate "Electra", and the club therefore carries its name for sponsorship reasons[1]. Maccabi is among Europe's most illustrious clubs, having won the European Cup 5 times since 1977, and finishing second a further 8 times. The club dominates Israeli basketball, having won 48 Israeli National Championship titles (including 23 in a row between 1970 and 1992) and 37 Israeli State Cups. The club also holds the record for the most Triple Crowns won with 5.

Football: Yossi Benayun

Yosef Shai "Yossi" Benayoun (Hebrew: ???? ?? ??????; born 5 May 1980) is an Israeli footballer who is currently signed to Chelsea in the Premier League. Benayoun plays as an attacking midfielder, often occupying the space just behind the striker. In Israel, he is sometimes nicknamed "The Diamond". Furthermore, he is the captain of the Israeli national team.


windsurfer: Gal Fridman, Shacar Tzuberi

Gal Fridman (Hebrew: ?? ???????; born September 16, 1975) is an Israeli windsurfer and Olympic gold medalist.

He was born in Karkur, Israel and lives in nearby kibbutz Sdot Yam.

Fridman won a bronze medal in the Atlanta 1996 Summer Olympics, and a gold medal in the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics. He is the only Israeli athlete to win two Olympic medals, and the first (and only, thus far) Olympic gold medalist in Israeli history. Fittingly, his first name, Gal, means "wave" in Hebrew.

Shahar Zubari (Hebrew: ??? ??????, Shahar Tzuberi; born September 1, 1986) is an Israeli windsurfer and Olympic bronze medalist, surfing in the "Neil Pryde" RS:X discipline. He was born in Eilat, Israel.

 

[vatroslav_cro]

I don't like the idea that this thread is forgotten so I am keeping it alive.
OK, some other good athletes from Croatia:

DAVID ŠAIN
DAMIR MARTIN
VALENT SINKOVIĆ
MARTIN SINKOVIĆ (rowers)

They won the gold medal in a four-seated sculler race at the World Championships on Karapiro Lake, New Zealand, November 2010.
The Croatian team finished the race with a time of 6:15.78, 1.26 seconds ahead of the Italian team who won the silver medal. The bronze went to the Australian team.

The World Rowing Championships on Karapiro Lake last from October 30 to November 7, 2010