Today, for the 14th time since the restoration of independence, Montenegro will learn the name of the best athlete of the year - the Management Board of the Montenegrin Olympic Committee will make a decision on the name of the laureate, and the official announcement will be held on December 26 at a ceremony in Villa "Gorica".
The year, which is slowly counting its last days, was not overly successful for Montenegrin sports, but as many as 11 candidates were nominated for the best athlete, proposed by national associations.
The Board of Directors of COK announced the list of candidates yesterday, and they are on it Mina Dragović (volleyball), Nenad Dulović (karate), Nina Dragović (gymnastics), Milivoj Dukić (sailing), Nemanja Čađenović (peek box) Dusan Vucicevic (rugby), Gracija Stjepčević (bowling), Nebojsa Simic (handball), Arso Milić (jiu jitsu), Dejan Lazović (water polo) i Tomislav Djinovic (box).
Considering the fact that according to the Rulebook on the selection of the best athletes and national selections of Montenegro, priority is given to sports that were in the program of the Olympic Games, it seems that the most realistic thing is that the prize will go to boxer Đinović, who shone at the European Championship and reached bronze medals.
Dulović (silver from the EP), Čađenović (bronze from the EP), Milić (gold from the EP and bronze from the World Cup) also won medals, but karate, kickboxing and jiu jitsu are not on the OI program.
As the best representative of Montenegro at this summer's Olympic Games, sailor Dukić with 14th place from Paris can hope for an award.
When it comes to federations in team sports, Football and Basketball traditionally did not have their own candidate, while Handball, Water Polo and Swimming, to say the least, proposed unexpected names.
RSCG decided on Simić, who is having a dream season at the club level, but with the national team of Montenegro, he experienced a disaster in the play-offs for the World Cup against Italy.
On the other hand, it is clear that it is Tatjana Brnović, as the best pivot of the recently concluded EHF Euro, deserved more to be in the selection for athlete of the year, but our handball house explained that they could not propose her due to deadlines.
As they stated, the deadline for applying for candidates was December 9, and the Montenegrin handball player was included in the ideal team of the European Championship six days later, when the championship of the Old Continent ended.
A somewhat unusual situation, so COK and RSCG could agree to change the deadlines for some of the next elections, considering that practically every year our women's national team faces a big championship in December.
The Water Polo and Swimming Federation decided on Lazović, who was far from an ideal year, but it seems that few water polo players in the 2024 games even deserved to be selected for the athlete of the year.
In the end, there were also federations that proposed athletes whose success was 33rd place at the European Cup or 54th at the European Championship.
Tomislav Đinović or some surprise - COK is on the move.
They have won the award for the best athlete of Montenegro so far Srdjan Mrvaljević (2011), together Bojana Popović i Katarina Bulatović (2012) Nikola Janović (2013), together with Katarina Bulatović and Mladjan Janović (2014) Aleksandar Ivović (2015) Marina Raković and Aleksandar Ivović together (2016), Vuko Borozan (2017) Predrag Radosevic (2018) Mario Hodzic (2019) Drasko Brguljan (2020) Marija Vuković (2021. i 2022) i Nenad Dulović (2023)
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