The World Table Tennis Championship in Granada is the crown of the season and an opportunity for Filip Radović and Luka Bakić to win the only thing missing from Paralympic sport in Montenegro - a medal from the world championship, said the president of the Paralympic Committee (POK) Igor Tomić.
He emphasized that in the association he heads there are many more important things than medals, but that they motivated and pushed the Montenegrin Paralympians forward. According to him, Montenegrin athletes with disabilities have been continuously winning medals at major competitions since 2015.
"There were a handful of them from the European championships, and last year we crowned an unreal cycle from Rio de Janeiro in 2016 to Tokyo last year with the first Paralympic medal. From November 6 to 14 in Granada, Spain, the World Table Tennis Championship is on the program, and "Montenegro will have two representatives in the S10 class - the triumphant Filip Radović and the no less quality Luka Bakić", believes Tomić.
Speaking about the expectations at that championship, Tomić said that he is optimistic, recalling the good form in the first part of the season and placing on the podiums at the last three sanctioned tournaments in Paris, Laško and Podgorica.
"On the July ranking list, Radović will be the third and Bakić the fifth player in the world. There are no Chinese among the top five, and it is known what they mean in world table tennis. So much for what kind of affinities and ambitions we are going to the World Cup with. It would be nice if Montenegrin to the Paralympic movement, Radović or Bakić, maybe both of them will bring what we lack in the treasury of trophies from the sports that are on the program of the Paralympic Games, which is a world medal", said Tomić.
He said that the WC in Granada is a crucial event this year and that he is convinced that the Montenegrin table tennis players will have something to show the world at that championship as well.
Tomić reminded that the Montenegrin sport of people with disabilities has a world medal, the gold medal of chess player Predrag Nikač, from the World Championship for people without and with visual impairments in Cagliari in 2019.
"It is one of the greatest successes and results of Montenegrin sports," Tomić said.
Speaking about the medals won, he said that none of them should be compared with Filip Radović's Paralympic medal, but that he should always remember Marijana Goranović's first medal in 2016 in Grosseto.
"I was her companion and companion from the beginning of her career. I witnessed how that child lived and trained for a full ten years in the modest and unconditional conditions of the then Resource Center and from which she brought Montenegro a medal. At that competition, Radmilo Baranin won gold in javelin throwing, but from a personal and emotional point of view, that Marijana medal is for me the essence of the value and importance of the Paralympic movement", said Tomić.
He said that as long as he lives he will remember the moment when she left the stadium in Grosseto after winning the silver medal.
"That meeting of ours was the crown of my emotions. Everything that I experienced with my athletes stopped in that meeting. And there were incredible moments. I can never forget the tears of Miloš Ranitović in Grosseto, as well as the moment when Maja Rajković is in the last series she was left without a medal in Berlin", said Tomić.
He pointed out that results and medals, performances in large stadiums should remain in everyone's memory, stating that the essence of Paralympics and sports is not in that at all.
"It is the crown of the work, but what is hidden, which the general public does not see, is much more important. They do not know how long the organizational and training day lasts, how people who use wheelchairs, who have no perception of sight, or children and youth with disabilities do it. , their parents and coaches, who are the bearers and initiators of the Paralympic moment. In the end, how is it done in Montenegro, which for all its specifics is more or less open when it comes to PWDs," Tomić said.
The president of POK said that they are not fighters for sports results, but athletes who break prejudices and change society and the system.
"Together with other friends from related and fraternal PWD organizations, it seems to me that we have succeeded in the past 20 years, since I have been following and living with people with disabilities, to move Montenegrin society for a certain moment when it comes to its inclusivity, integrativeness and respect diversity", said Tomić.
Commenting on the allocations for sports from the budget, he said that the state monitored the growth and results of athletes with disabilities, stating that these allocations for Montenegrin sports are very small.
"Umbrella sports associations and all national sports federations shared EUR 3,6 million this year. That is very little", said Tomic.
He believes that sports, culture, art and education are at a humiliating level when it comes to funding.
"These are not commercial, but essential things of a society. The state has to invest two or three times more money in them," Tomić said.
He said that the fact that only POK in Croatia will receive three million EUR speaks for the level of allocation for Montenegrin sports.
"POK does not have its own associations, so it redirects the entire amount it receives from the state. It finances all programs, from the rehabilitation and recreational moment to Filip Radović's program. We fund practically everything that happens in the Paralympic movement in Montenegro," Tomić said.
Commenting on the announcement of the drafting of the new Law on Sports, he pointed out that POK received its status in the current legal act, stating that he expects it to be even better positioned in the new document. He announced that he would appeal for the categorization of Montenegrin athletes to be done in the new law.
"The state should make a universal and high-quality act - the categorization of athletes. Then, after the achieved result, the top athlete will know exactly what is coming from the state in terms of stipends and rewards. In POK, we made an internal categorization of athletes", Tomić said.
He emphasized that the conditions in which they train, not only Paralympians, but all Montenegrin athletes are not at a satisfactory level.
"And at major competitions, you should cross spears with representatives of the largest inclusive systems and be equal or better in certain situations. We do not have a winter or summer Olympic or Paralympic preparation center. We don't have an athletic track in the capital. We are talking about basic sports, and maybe we are the only capital city in the world without an athletics track", said Tomić.
He announced that despite financial problems, POK managed to enable the participation of athletes in 32 domestic or international competitions. Tomić emphasized that he is proud that the capital hosted regional wheelchair basketball tournaments and the first sanctioned table tennis tournament.
"We were given the opportunity to host the second round of the Champions League goalball tournament from July 22 to 24 in Nikšić. We will host the best teams from Germany, France and Portugal. It's unreal to what level our goalball players have risen, especially considering that we can't even assemble the entire goalball team," said Tomić.
He pointed out that the national football team has incredible potential and that a lot is expected of it.
"They have so much potential that maybe we can dream of a European medal or placement at the Paralympic Games," said Tomić.
Speaking about the activities carried out in the first half of the year, he announced that a lot of new athletes were classified in table tennis and athletics.
"We have a new striker, Milan Đinović, who participated in the World Cup. Our swimmers are interesting, we have a lot of young people. The first sanctioned swimming meet in Montenegro awaits them in Podgorica at the beginning of September," Tomić said.
According to him, the second half of the year is reserved for major competitions.
"The WC in table tennis is our crown, and before that competition we announce several interesting and affirmative ones. First, next week, the European Youth Paralympic Games in Pajulahti, Finland, where we will be represented by three athletes - table tennis player Uroš Gugolj and swimmers Iskra Dedivanović and Andrija Đurović. Next up will be the European University Games in Lodz, where table tennis player Slobodanka Gurešić will compete. For the first time, we will perform at a big competition in judo, at the beginning of September in Cagliari, and we will have two judokas - Adnan Kujović and Mirnes Ramović", said Tomić.
He added that all those competitions are a prelude to the season finale - the World Table Tennis Championship. "I expect Radović and Bakić with the form they have this year to crown another historic year for the Montenegrin Paralympic movement," Tomić said.
He emphasized that he is pleased to be at the head of the Montenegrin Paralympic movement, but that he does not feel like that, but rather as part of the team that led the POK. Commenting on the status of PWDs, he said that it is better than three or four Paralympic cycles ago, but that there is still a lot of room for improvement.
"I am proud that people with disabilities fought for the improvement of the conditions in which they live. In adverse conditions, they produced incredible results and convinced everyone in Montenegro that they are worthy of respect and that they represent the treasure of this country, and not a problem as it is sometimes treated," said Tomić.
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