Sanja Jovanovic, the 21-year-old Croatian who has swum beyond expectation in Debrecen, setting a world short-course record of 26.50sec over 100m backstroke, has dedicated her achievements to her mother, a cancer patient. The swimmer said: 'I wanted to do something for my mother who is fatally ill with cancer'.
Jovanovic's improvement coincides with a move from Dubrovnik to Rijeka in the north of Croatia. 'As it was almost impossible to train in Dubrovnik, I lost joy in swimming and took it up again only one and a half years ago,' Jovanovic told the PPS media agency, though that explanation not really accounting for the fact that she raced at the same European event two years ago and has world-ranking entries for 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Her times ranged from 27.70 to 28.04 throughout those years, short-course. An odd explanation then. Perhaps the break was somewhat shorter or something got lost in translation.
The backstroke specialist is now being supported by the Primorje Rijeka club in the city that will host the European s/c winter showcase on December 11-14 next year.
Her coach is Bulgarian-born Dmitry Bobey. 'I owe him a lot,' said Jovanovic, a sub-58sec swimmer over 100m after finishing second to Manaudou. The coach said: 'Now she should also win an Olympic medal in Beijing in this event.' That would take a rare gain indeed and would require not a little leap-frogging: Jovanovic clocked 1:01.59 to finish 11th in Melbourne 2007. Here's her best 10 times so far, l/c:
Bobey is backed by Mike Bottom, the former US sprint ace who has left America to coach Duje Draganja, 2004 Olympic silver medallist over 50m freestyle, among others, at the Mladost Zagreb club. There are only four 50m pools in Croatia.
Debrecen mini-digest - Standing room only: three of the four finals sessions in Debrecen have sold out, but then the venue holds just 1,000 spectator seats. So far, 5,980 have paid to get in.