Belgrade Sports – Page 8

“Beating the Heat” Weekend Family Journal

August 17, 2009August 17, 2009billkralovec

Ocean, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Ocean is shown above at the beach across from Ada Ciganlija. Ada has been called the “Belgrade Sea” and there were thousands of people Sunday swimming. It was a sunny, warm weekend and we enjoyed some traditional summer activities. Nadia and I are very happy to enjoy the four seasons once again after so many years in the tropics.

Ocean loves the water, probably the most of the three kids. Belgraders love the outdoors and are not very self-concious of their bodies, as there were all sorts of humanity on display. Nadia and I love to see women walking away from the beach to the bus stop in their bikini – it harkens back to 1973 in the USA. Women just don’t do that anymore in the USA.

We also went shopping on Saturday to the commissary at the Embassy, Mercatur, etc. I took a long nap on Saturday also. Owen and I went for a bike ride along the Sava. Sad to see so much garbage.

Wildman Oliver at Adas Beach — Wildman Oliver at Ada's Beach

The Kralovec family is also following with great interest, the World Championship Track and Field meet in Berlin this week. Usain Bolt was amazing last night with 9.58 in the 100 m. He looked like he was going for a jog in the park. I also can’t believe how loose he is in the starting blocks. He was joking around with his teammate, hamming it up for the camera. Then on the world’s most important race for the year, just like the final in Beijing, he sets the world record. He can even go faster! I can’t wait to see him in the 200 meters. Serbia has 5 athletes that qualified, their best chance for a medal is in today’s triple jump.

Bolt Checks His Time As Tyrone Gay (USA) Comes in Second At 9.71

World Cup Qualifying Match in Belgrade

June 7, 2009June 8, 2009billkralovec

South End Fans Demonstrate Their Enthusiasm

Serbia defeated Austria 1 – 0 Saturday evening in a World Cup Qualifier at Red Star Stadium in Belgrade. Serbia got an early goal through a penalty kick and the rest of the game was scoreless. Both teams hit the goal post, with Austria having a few more chances for a goal than Serbia. Serbia was lucky to get the three points, as they were not as explosive offensively as in past games. They will need to play better to win the group. The win takes them to 18 points in 7 games. They play the Faroe Islands this week in their last game until September. On a side note, I think it is a joke that a group of “autonomous” islands that belong to Denmark can have a World Cup Qualifying team with a population of 50,000. What a waste of money for Serbia to have to travel there! The Faroe Islands have absolutely zero chance of ever qualifying for a World Cup.

Serbian and Manchester United Star Vidic Comes Off With an Injury

We didn’t get to enjoy the game because of the over crowding in the stadium. The game was sold out and then some. I should have known something was up when I noticed fans arriving to the stadium two and 1/2 hours before gametime. I am used to having to do this from my many years in Latin America, especially Colombia. Many Latin American countries have problems with counterfeit tickets, seats being sold twice by corrupt game officials, poor crowd control and security in the stadium. This causes fans to have to show up hours before a big match to guarantee a seat. It seemed like a similar situation in the stadium here. We unfortunately arrived 15 minutes before kick off. I had Owen with me as well as my friend Eric. There were lines to enter the stadium, and funny thing was they never even checked our tickets. We got to the tunnel leading to our seats and it was tightly packed. As we were walking in and down the steps, we felt pushed from behind. It was quite crowded and Serbs are big people. I put Owen on my shoulders and I was concerned that I was going to fall. Eric put out his shoulder and braced himself against the wall as I eventually passed Owen to a soldier that was there. Luckily the press box was right next to the exit and the soldier kindly passed Owen up over the plexiglass wall and a cameraman helped him over. After he was safe, Eric and I made our way out of the aisle in into the row beneath the press box. It was standing room only all the way down the aisle and next to the aisle. It was this way for all of the tunnels leading to the field around the stadium. People were shouting “polako” (take it easy) and as game time approached, they all got settled in. One young boy was a bit shook up as he also escaped and stood by us. I don’t think we would have been trampled, but it if we would have fallen down, it could have gotten ugly, especially for Owen.

This brought home to me that stadium officials need to be more organized. It will keep me away from the stadium because I don’t have 5 hours to waste at the stadium and it was not comfortable to watch the game. They need better control at the gates and entry tunnels. I was surprised at this because of all of the other events I attended here, have been well done.

Owen’s Swimming Lessons

May 18, 2009May 18, 2009billkralovec

Owen with Coach Nesa, originally uploaded by bill kralovec – May 9, 2009

Owen is taking swimming lessons with the Plivaćki Klub “Free Style.” Plivački means swimming in Serbian. Owen is shown above with his coach, Nenad Milojević. Coach Nenad is showing him how to dive. Swimming and especially water polo is big in Serbia. The lessons take place at the Partizan Water Polo Club pool in the Banjica suburb of Belgrade. The facility is huge, with an Olympic size pool and 1/2 of an Olympic size pool. There are also multiple swimming pools outside that will open on June 1. Besides the pool, the recreational complex houses a table tennis school, a tennis club, and right next door is the RAD professional soccer club.

The lessons are for elementary age students and take place every Saturday and Sunday at 5:00 PM. There are about 20 kids in Owen’s group, with Owen being just about the youngest. The classes cost $40 per month. They spend a lot of time with the kick boards and Owen is developing a good kick and back stroke with the board. He is also starting the fundamentals of the free style and sort of diving. He is improving rapidly. Serbia always in medal contention for water polo so I hope it rubs off on Owen.

Typical European changing rooms – unisex, with men and women right next to each other. It is no big deal here, but in Puritan USA, it would be a scandal. They are separate rooms with no doors and everyone respects each others’ privacy.

We want Owen to feel safe in water and these classes will hopefully help him do that. He is very coachable, and I see him doing a lot of laps compared to the other kids, who sometimes are off-task. Nenad and his assistants do a good job of getting the kids to not fear the water and develop good fundamentals. The classes also give me a chance to work on my Serbian lessons. I take my book along and do a lesson while Owen is in the pool. Nenad (Nesha for short), wants to practice his English with me and always helps with my Serbian.

I highly recommend the swimming club to anyone. Owen is the only foreigner, but we are treated very well by all. That is one thing that everyone always says about the Serbs here in Belgrade, they are really nice.

Novak Wins His Tourney

May 13, 2009May 13, 2009billkralovec

As expected, Novak Djokovic won the inaugural Serbia Open in a straight sets victory over Lucasz Kubot. It wasn’t as easy as I thought, as Novak had a flair for the dramatic, going down 2-5 in the second set, only to come back to win, 7-6 (7-0) in a tiebreaker. Djokovic won the first set, 6-3.

Kubot did not have history on his side. He was a Lucky Loser from Poland and ranked #179 in the world. Kubot did win the doubles tourney however, his second career ATP title. This was Novak’s 13th ATP tour title.

It was a celebration for Serbia. The hero brought the ATP tour to this tennis mad country. It was a beautiful day, with the Kalmegdan Fortress on one side of the stadium, and the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers on the the other. The President, Prime Minister, and Serbian military representatives were all there as well as a packed, enthusaistic stadium.

Owen, Nadia and I really enjoyed the game. We got to see Tito’s Blue Train (a future post) and some world class tennis.

Serbian President Tadic & PM Cvetkovic Watched the Game Too (blue shirts)

Kralovec Family To Attend Serbia Open

May 9, 2009billkralovec

Nadia, Owen and I are excited for our first ATP Finals tomorrow. We will be attending the Novak Djokovic, err, excuse me, Serbia Open. I joke that it should be called the Novak Open as he bought the rights to the Dutch Open tourney and moved it to his hometown of Belgrade. Thankfully, he didn’t disappoint his family and the home crowd and made it to the finals. Unfortunately, all the Serb players ended up in the same side of the draw and Djokovic cruised through defeating two Serbs, including the second highest ranked Serb, Victor Trocki (#40 in the world). It was almost like a Davis Cup practice. Tonight he got by the Italian, Andreas Seppi, but lost one set.

He will be taking on a “Lucky Loser” named Lukasz Kubot, from Poland. He is the first Polish player in an ATP final in 27 years. The term lucky loser means that Kubot lost in the qualifying rounds to get into the tourney, but due to an injury, was the alternate and got to enter the main singles draw. Only 5 lucky losers have won ATP events in the last 30 years. Lukasz is a decent doubles player, with one ATP doubles title, and he is currently ranked #22 in doubles, but #179 on the singles tour. After catching a lucky break to get into the tourney, he got another one when #25 ranked Russian Igor Andreev, withdrew in the first set of their second round match. This afternoon he defeated world #24, Ivo Karlovic, the 6 foot 10 inch big server from Croatia. For Kubot, with a career singles record of 15-16, this was the biggest win of his career. The 26 year old will have the biggest match of his career tomorrow.

Kubot from todays win in the semifinals. (photo courtesy of the Serbia Open) — Kubot from today's win in the semifinals. (photo courtesy of the Serbia Open)

Does Kubot have a chance tomorrow? His only hope is that Djokovic played late tonight and played three sets, and he might be tired tomorrow afternoon. Will Novak be over confident? Kubot has to be happy already with getting this far and the guaranteed 40,000 Euros. Will his luck continue?

I predict a straight sets victory for Djokovic, and if Kubot wins 6 games in the two sets, he should still consider himself lucky.

With our finals tickets, we also have access to the doubles final. I see that tonight, Kubot won again and he will be playing in the doubles final as well with partner Oliver Marach.

The ATP Tour Comes to Belgrade: Let’s Get Pumped!

May 1, 2009May 1, 2009billkralovec

As you can tell by the title of this post, I am very excited for the first ever Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour event being held in Serbia! The Serbia Open will begin tomorrow, Saturday May 2 with the qualifying rounds. There will be 32 men competing in the singles and 16 doubles teams competing for the title. This is a new ATP tour event.

It is certainly not Wimbledon or the US Open, as it is classified as a “250 series” which means that it is in the lowest tier of tourneys on the ATP tour. The 250 means the winner will get 250 points. The winner will also win 73, 000 Euros, which is almost $100,000. Not bad for a week’s work. Second place earns half of that. Even though it is not a high profile tour event, I am still looking forward to it because it is here. Nadia and I purchased tickets for the finals and are arranging for a babysitter.

It might as well be called the Novak Djokovic Open as he was the driving force behind getting the tourney here in Belgrade. He is also by far, the highest rank player in the tourney. There are two other events the same week, both 250 series, in Munich, Germany and Estoril, Portugal. Novak is currently ranked #3 in the world and the next highest ranked player competing in the open is Radek Stepanek who is ranked #19. Djokovic is 3- 1 against Stepanek in his career .

“Nole” as they call Djokovic here in Serbia is defending his title this week at the Masters Series tourney in Rome. He is a better player on hard courts, but has won three ATP titles on clay. This week he is defending his clay court title at the Rome Open, which is a Masters Series event. He is having a good run lately, destroying Tommy Robredo yesterday, 6-1, 6-1 to move to the quarterfinals in Rome. Things are looking up for him to win his Serbia Open. We shall see.

There are two other ranked Serbians in the singles draw, #40 Victor Troicki and #65 Janko Tipsarevic. I will be posting updates all week as the tourney gets underway.

We Did It! : Belgrade Marathon 2009

April 19, 2009April 19, 2009billkralovec

Nadia and I had a wonderful run in the 22nd Belgrade Marathon yesterday. One could feel the excitement as the gun went off to announce the start of the race. Thousands of runners shouted and raised their hands as we moved in unison up Queen Aleksandra Street. It was a thrilling rush to be part of such a mob activity. There were people cheering and watching along most of the route. The sunny skies and cool (70 F) temperatures made for beautiful sites and nice running conditions.

We decided to run together instead of me chasing the Kenyans. Below is as close as I got to the elite runners. They swepts the top spots as expected. We ran 15 kilometers, the most we have ever done together in a time of 1 hour and 38 minutes. Vera our nanny watched the kids at home so Nadia and I treated it as a running date again. The views of the city were spectacular, such as the shot I took from Branko’s Bridge below.

The first 5 kilomters on the old side of Belgrade, south of the Sava River went by extremely quickly. The next 10 kilometers were the tough part as we crossed the bridge into New Belgrade. The nice thing about New Belgrade is that it is former swampland that Tito’s socialists developed and it is completely flat. We ran along the Danube all the way to Zemun and then separated from the marathon course at the 10 kilometer mark. We then finished the last 5 kilometers by crossing the main high way overpass near the Mercator Shopping Center.

Nadia had the best orange juice she ever drank immediately after we stopped. We then luckily found a taxi near the highway and we were back home in 5 minutes. We both pledged to train more next spring and run the half marathon (21 kilometers).

After the race, I was extremely tired and as I write this my legs are still a bit sore. I’ll go out for a run this morning with Ocean as soon as she wakes up. We took the kids to McDonald’s and played in the yard for the rest of the afternoon. Nadia made a nice risotto and then we went for a walk for ice cream. Belgrade reminds me of Michigan summertime right now.

We are beginning our Spring Break and have the next week off of school. The Orthodox Christian Easter is today and so we have our break later than most countries.

Survived! Ready for the 21 kilometers in 2010!

Bring On the Kenyans!!! Belgrade Marathon 2009

April 18, 2009April 18, 2009billkralovec

Registration, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Nadia and I are shown above after registering for the 2009 “Banca Intensa” Belgrade Marathon. This is the 22nd edition of one of the biggest sporting events in Serbia. This is the first that the Kralovec family will be participating. We will be representing our countries (Australia & USA) against the best in the world.

There are four races actually today. There is the marathon, a half marathon, and the UNICEF 5 km fun run. Within the marathon, there is the military world marathon championship, with soldiers from all over the world participating.

Nadia and I, being “serious” runners, signed up for the half marathon. Nadia was the 701rst woman to register. I was too busy soothing Oliver to find out what number I was. We bought the boys UNICEF shirts so they could feel they were getting a t-shirt and registering for a run also.

My race strategy will be to focus on the list below. Hey Mathew Cheboi, if you are reading this, I’m gunning for you! I’ll find his number (701), get next to him, and then run with him until the last 5 kilometers where I intend to pull away. Then if I am feeling good, I’ll keep going and maybe take on some of the guys in the marathon. I can’t believe that I wasn’t on the list below.

Seriously, Nadia and I intend to run 10 kilometers together and then quietly step off the course. We have not been training much. I don’t know how much my 41 year old body can do with exactly 3 training runs behind a jogging stroller. Being an international school principal and have three children under the age of 6 really cuts into training time! If I am feeling good, I’ll go on and finish the second half of the half marathon and do another 11 kilometers.

This is our first really big race. We have run in lots of 10 kilometer races back in Michigan, as well as the annual Guacamaya “Run For The Earth Fun Run,” but never have we done a city marathon with thousands of participants. I wonder how far away from the Kenyans I’ll be when we start off?

My main goals are to enjoy time with my wife, get some exercise, and enjoy the sights of the city. We start in front of national parliament and get to run across the bridge to New Belgrade and back. We are three hours from race time as I write this. I’ll let you know how it turns out. I have Oliver and Owen convinced that I am going to win.

Serbia Defeats Sweden

April 2, 2009April 2, 2009billkralovec

Last night a bunch of us from school went to the national soccer team of Serbia play an exhibition match with Sweden. The game was held in Partizan Stadium, which is close to the school. Serbia is doing well lately in it World Cup Qualifying Group and continued to play top flight soccer with a 2 – 0 victory.
The “White Eagles” got off to a fast start with a goal in the first minute of play by the 6 foot 8 striker, Nikola Zigic. He plays in the Spanish league (Racing Santander) and used his height to head in a crossing pass into the back of the net.

Sweden dominated play in the first half but did not get a goal. I had to go home to take care of the kids as Nadia has the flu and needed help. Fortunately, I didn’t miss much of a half and got back in time to see Serbia get back control of play. They scored a second goal in the 82nd minute by Bosko Jankovic, who plays for Serie A team Genoa.
Serbia is currently first in its group in qualifying for the World Cup 2010 in South Africa. They are at the midway point of the games. The top team in this European Group 7 qualifies automatically for the World Cup. In the remaining five games, Serbia will host Austria on June 6, travel to the Faroe Islands on June 10. When I get back from summer holidays, they have a huge game against soccer powerhouse France on September 9 at Red Star Stadium. They then host Romania on October 10, and finish the qualifying round by traveling to Lithuania October 14.
Serbia’s main rival in the group, France, defeated Serbia, but they lost to Austria and tied Romania, to end up 2 points behind Serbia. Lithuania is third, 3 points behind Serbia and Austria is five points behind.

Kosovo-born, CSKA Moscow Player Milos Krasic Heads Towards the Net

Serbia features several European professional soccer superstars. The captain of the national team, Nemanja Vidic is considered one of the top defenders in Europe and plays for Manchester United. They have many young stars and this is a team that has a shot, as its toughest games in the second half of the qualifying round are at home. Regardless of the outcome, it will be exciting to follow.

ISB Wins A Trophy!

March 30, 2009March 30, 2009billkralovec

Team Photo With Trophy in Helsinki, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Doron and Zoki are holding the third place trophy outside of the International School of Helsinki. The team was celebrating an important victory over the Kiev International School in the consolation match, 50-47. The victory earned the team the third place trophy. There were 8 teams competing so it was quite an accomplishment. It was appropriate the cup was filled with snow, as it represented the team venturing to the frozen north of Finland to compete in the tourney.

The Dragons led the entire game against the Cosaks of KIS. ISB used a full court pressure defense to disrupt the opponents. The strategy worked as many fast break layups were scored by Doron and Nikola. Panayot played with an injured foot, and despite the pain, he had his usual outstanding game. A special mention also goes to Mik for his defensive efforts on their best player. Coaches Sands and Kralovec thank the team for their efforts. It was a fitting end to a great season. The boys played close to 20 games! They developed their individual fundamentals of basketball, learned the strategies and finer points of the game, increased their fitness, and interacted with students from all over the world and Serbia.

Things are looking bright for 2009-2010, as the entire team that traveled to Helsinki returns. We will also get some excellent players from the Middle School team that finished in second place in their tourney. We will also be hosting the high school boys’ tourney, so there are many things in our favor. Job well done gentlemen!

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