MINA IS THE BALKAN CHAMPION: Serbian athlete wins gold in race walking! (PHOTO)

One of the most successful young athletes, Mina Stanković from the Athletic Club “Pirot,” after an outstanding junior career, has recently been breaking records in the senior category as well. Since the beginning of the year, she has celebrated victories both on the domestic and European stage, and her latest success is a gold medal at the 25th Balkan Championship in race walking held in Turkey.

She covered twenty-one kilometers in one hour, 37 minutes and 18 seconds. That is the magical result that brought Serbia’s representative Mina Stanković to the top of the podium in Izmir. Strong competition, she says, was only a challenge.

“From the very beginning I was in the leading group and I pulled away — already from the second, third kilometer it was my pace until the end and that brought me to first place. During the race, when I’m in the leading position, I try to keep it that way. At that moment I follow the clock more, because I know I’m in the leading group, and then it becomes a kind of battle with the stopwatch — not for position at that point. And until the end of the race, everything is in my head to keep it that way and to finish with the best possible result,” says Mina Stanković, Serbia’s athletics representative.

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In addition to reaching the “top” of the Balkans, Mina recently set a new national record in the senior competition at the Serbian Championship.

“At the Serbian Championship I broke my own record. Last year I also did three kilometers, it was 12:55, now I did 12:35, which shows that I am really progressing in those shorter disciplines as well,” Mina Stanković points out.

This twenty-year-old athlete earned the well-deserved attention of the global sports public through hard daily training — under the watchful eye of her coach.

“A lot of work was done on that speed she carried over from the junior category, and we gradually added volume, but that has been over the past two years — we added 2–3 kilometers on a monthly level. In the end, we reached the level where that half marathon of 21 kilometers — where last year it was 10 kilometers — she didn’t even feel it, which can be seen from the result,” says Predrag Krstović, coach of AK Pirot.

With 25 national records broken in the past period and the title of Serbia’s best young athlete for three consecutive years, Mina Stanković is no longer just a talented young prospect. She has continued her string of success in the senior competition — and her ambitions are as expected.

“This year the European Championship — and in two years, see you at the Olympics,” said Mina Stanković, Balkan champion in race walking.