At the shooting range "Ljubović" in Podgorica, Nikola Šaranović he came in 1984, as a sixteen-year-old. Four decades later, and over 250 medals won, he still speaks fondly of shooting. And he passed that love on to two of his four children, Marigold i Isidore. The older one, Nevena, is already a serious competitor and, possibly, one of the athletes who will represent Montenegro at the Olympics in Paris, which begins on July 26. Isidora's competitive journey is just beginning...
Both jokingly say that, in relation to the environment in which they grew up, they had no other choice.
"I had to get used to guns and pistols as a child," Nevena said with a smile.
A gift from my father and the first trip to the shooting range
In his father's stories, says Nikola, everyone in the family was engaged in hunting. He is aware that at the time of his grandfather, it was at a more primitive level, but he is sure that his and his children's love for weapons is hereditary.
"As a child, I watched my father and grandfather go hunting, how they loved weapons, and it fascinated me. At the age of eight, I received an air rifle from my father, which he, knowing how much I love guns, as I watch him clean them, brought from Czechoslovakia, from one of his official trips. I still jealously guard that air rifle today and it has a place of honor in my gun cabinet", he tells "Vijesti".
That's when it all started. However, Nikola took his first serious steps six years later, in 1984, when he came to the "Ljubović" shooting range.
"The shooting range was built in 1981, when the European Championship was held there. As a teenager I read that an Englishman, Alan Alistair, scored 600 out of 600 possible points, which was a world record and the media was buzzing about it. I was mesmerized by it and asked how I could come to the shooting range. "My father took me to perform for the Radoje Dakić Shooting Group, the company he worked for," he said.
Thus, for the first time after six years since he received an air rifle from his father, he had the opportunity to shoot with that weapon at the shooting range.
"When I showed up, the professional coaches immediately noticed me and, after that first training session, asked me to transfer to the professional club 'Centar' Podgorica. I accepted. It was for Nova 1984 and at the end of that year, already after a few months, although I can't say that it came suddenly, because I already had experience shooting with an air rifle, I won my first medals with a rifle".
A year later, Nikola continues his shooting career by shooting a pistol. He also says that this is the usual path of archers.
In the representation of four countries
In 40 years, Nikola Saranović was a representative of the then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Community of Serbia and Montenegro and, after the 2006 referendum, a representative of Montenegro.
During that time, he won over 250 medals, a large number of which were international.
"I also had a lot of titles of champions of the Balkans, Yugoslavia, Montenegro 40 or more times... I'm not even counting anymore," he says.
Before the Olympic Games in Greece, 2003, he says, he had a record of 585 laps.
"Which was among the three best in the world that year and remained among the eight best in the world that year. Although I was the strongest that year and the closest to the world medal, I did not compete in the 2004 Olympics, because the decision of the coach at the time was different, and he sent a competitor from Serbia to the competition. I made the decision sportingly".
After the independence of Montenegro, after the referendum in 2006, he participated in two Olympics, in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012. Now, as a coach and parent, she hopes to see her older daughter Nevena at the Olympics this year in Paris.
"Nevena is much better than me, which is good. "Isidora is also making great strides," he says.
Mathematics, Law and Sports
Nevena Šaranović is turning 29 soon. She graduated from the Faculty of Science and Mathematics and teaches mathematics to primary school students. As for the fact that she is in archery today, she jokingly says that, in the environment in which she grew up, she had no other choice.
"I had to get used to guns and pistols as a child," she adds with a smile.
She loved archery even as a child, but physical limitations stood in the way of her devoting herself to that sport even then.
"I really loved shooting, but I was too small, the rifle was heavy for me..." she says.
In the meantime, she tried her hand at volleyball, she also trained in basketball... In order to seriously practice shooting, she had to wait for some time, to get stronger and grow:
"That's why we say that shooting is a sport for a little older, more mature and stronger people".
Like her father, she is also a competitor who shoots with a pistol and this year celebrates her anniversary, ten years since, after trying other sports, she returned and devoted herself to shooting.
She went to her first competition outside Montenegro, the European Championship in the Netherlands, in 2015 as a junior. When it comes to the competitions ahead, Nevena is participating in the World Cup in Munich, which started on Friday and will be held until June 8.
"This concludes the competition season for this year and then we wait to see what will happen with the Olympics, since the process of collecting points is our last chance to get some more points. I am satisfied with how this season went in general", she said.
On the list of the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF), in the category of women who shoot from an air pistol, distance 10 meters, Nevena is in 94th place.
At the Montenegrin championship, a month ago, Nevena and Nikola won five gold medals together.
Isidora, who is five years younger, is graduating from law school. She also practiced archery as an amateur during elementary school. Today, like her father and sister, she competes in the air pistol discipline, and is just at the beginning of her competitive career.
Rifle or pistol
The first steps in archery are made with a rifle, says Nikola. He also adds that there is a big difference between shooting with a rifle and a pistol:
"The alphabet is learned on the rifle, and after that, the trainer assesses whether it is a talent for the rifle or for the pistol".
As he said, there are more people who are talented with a rifle than with a pistol:
“Out of 10 shooters on a pistol, you can get two top marksmen, and eight on a rifle. Rifle is easier as a discipline. Shooters can handle the rifle more easily, they hold it with two hands, they have equipment - leather jacket, pants, gloves, good belts, and the rifle is much easier to tame. The gun is one-handed, you are completely open to the target, when you shoot a small caliber, the wind swings you, breaks you, all changes go over one wrist. It is much more difficult to shoot pistols, but also more challenging," says Nikola and adds that the assessment of whether he is a shooter for one discipline or another usually comes after a year of training.
Age doesn't matter
As a coach and athlete, Nikola says that he would not recommend shooting before the age of 12 or 13.
"I started working actively at the age of 16, which is not too late. And as an archery coach, 12, 13 years ago I wouldn't recommend it, which doesn't mean that it can't be done if a child wants to, it's just that you really have to start carefully, because it's a static effort and the rifles aren't very light. You have to take care of the load on your spine, make it shorter training sessions, take breaks, and even start shooting from a sitting position," he says.
Shooting, he adds, is also a sport in which there is no upper limit when you can stop practicing it.
“I knew Ragnar Skanaker who was the Olympic champion at the age of 62. There are many shooters in the world, who are among the top ten, who are between 58 and 64 years old. In some sports, at 35 you have to think about the end of your career, in shooting you can start then and continue after that", he said and added that it is only important that your vision and cardio system are preserved...
Mental and physical strength
According to the interlocutors of "Vijesti", shooting is a mentally very demanding sport that requires a lot of concentration.
"Fifty percent of success in archery is mental preparation," says Nikola.
At the same time, archery is physically demanding.
"It is a great static effort, and in order to endure it, it is very important that the archer is physically active. Is it walking ten kilometers, light gymnastic exercises, but the body must be in excellent shape to be able to withstand this effort. In Montenegro, we are a little behind in that," says Nikola.
He adds that an archer can lose four or five kilograms during the competition.
"If you have a discipline that is 120 rounds, three positions on the rifle - lying down, standing and kneeling, plus rehearsal, which lasts five or more hours, at 40 degrees in the summer, the shooter loses four, five kilograms during one competition. It is an extremely strenuous sport. So is the gun, if the center is three, three and a half centimeters, at 50 meters, you shoot with one hand... It is demanding, difficult".
Nevena also explains that archers need a different kind of strength:
"It's not what we're used to with athletes, swimmers...".
And defeat is a lesson
Shooting, "Vijesti" interlocutors agreed, helped them to be more determined, to approach life's problems more calmly.
"That's what I like most about archery, that self-control, the concentration that is necessary to practice that sport, and that is also necessary and applicable in everyday life," says Isidora.
Nevena adds that sports in general, including shooting, help to be better.
"Persistence and combativeness, not to give up on one's wishes and possibilities, to always strive for better and greater, in terms of achieving results and one's possibilities. Discipline, training, self-control, that's something we practice at the shooting range... In sports, we push the limits every day... we're constantly learning to be better," she says.
Along the way, failure is inevitable.
"It is crucial that we accept those days when we are going well, but also those when we are not going well. Then we are given an opportunity to improve, when we review what is not working. Form is not just a growing graph", said the "Vijesti" interlocutor.
Countdown to Paris
For now, it is certain that Montenegro will be represented at the Olympics in Paris by water polo players and sailors Milivoj Dukić... Nevena could be among them, says Nikola, if she gets a wild card.
"At the Olympics, 45 to 50 shooters participate in each discipline. The first 35 get direct participation, they are world and continental medal winners, and then there are ten quotas... a so-called wild card is obtained, which can happen in Nevena's case, given her ranking on the world list. There is a real possibility that she will perform and all our hopes are aimed at getting that quota and that she will perform in Paris".
There is interest, but there are few shooting ranges
In Montenegro, the number of shootings is small, say "Vijesti" interlocutors. They claim that there is interest in that sport.
"Many times it happened to me that people say how wonderful it is, how they wanted to try it, that it was always their desire, but they didn't know where, how. Both older and younger, people just want to try it," says Nevena.
And when they try, adds Nikola, everyone falls in love with archery.
"The thing is that in the city, almost every neighborhood has a court for basketball, for handball... while in Podgorica we have only one shooting range".
In general, he adds, there are not many shooting ranges in Montenegro.
"In several municipalities in the north, they have a lot of improvised shooting ranges, in the south there are almost none, there is a nice shooting range at the Police Academy in Danilovgrad, which is very little used... You are simply conditioned, in order to engage in shooting, to do it exclusively on a safe and standard place for that sport. In other sports, improvisation is much easier."
Nikola, as the founder of the "Strijelac" Club, says that everyone is welcome, that they do not charge membership fees and that they provide air weapons, ammunition and targets to the members.
They learn how to use weapons responsibly
As soon as they enter the shooting range for the first time, those interested will hear lessons on proper handling of weapons, how to protect themselves and others around them.
"Shooting is one of the best ways to teach people how to handle guns safely. We are a countermeasure to the negative phenomena that occur in every society. We can't ban cars because someone crashed... Shooting is a sport that will teach people to treat weapons in the safest and most responsible way," says Nikola.
He also adds that "archery is one of the founders of the modern Olympic Games and a sport that is extremely practiced in the world".
Expensive, but they fight
Shooting is also an expensive sport, and in case of breakdowns, competitors from Montenegro depend on services outside the country.
"Nevena recently paid the guild, because the gun was already five years old, and during the last year it broke down several times. We have to wait for big competitions, in order to have it serviced by the company that produced that gun, because it is an extremely technologically advanced weapon, which is very complicated and expensive, it costs around 3.000 euros," says Nikola.
Ammunition and equipment are also expensive:
"So even without a competition, large numbers are allocated to equipment. The support is partly provided by the state, partly by the clubs, and the shooters allocate some from their own pockets, their salaries, scholarships... We are fighting".
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