Shooter Danka Barteková won the first medal for Slovakia at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London after she earned bronze in women’s skeet shooting. The gold belongs to US shooter Kimberly Rhode, while Chinese contestant Wei Ning won silver, the TASR newswire reported on July 29.
The 27-year-old native from Trenčín, who placed eighth in Beijing in 2008, qualified for the finals out of six shooters from second position. She then managed to gain 90 points and beat Russian shooter Marina Belikovová (4:3) in a shoot-out.
“I cried in Beijing and now I’m crying again,” Barteková told TASR. “But there is a big difference, because then I cried with disappointment and now I’m doing so because I’m happy.”
Slovak canoeist Michal Martikán was successful during Sunday’s competition. After a spoiled first qualification round for the men’s single C1, Martikán won the second qualification and made it to the semi-finals, the SITA newswire wrote.
Other representatives competing during the weekend were not as successful as their colleagues. Cyclist Peter Sagan failed in the men’s road race when he finished 34th. Sagan could not show off his famous finishing sprint in front of Buckingham Palace, as the result for him had been decided much earlier.
“I am a little bit disappointed, but every race is a lesson for me,” said the 22-year-old Slovak, as quoted by TASR.
Yet, he added that the memories of his first-ever Olympic race will only be good.
Slovak tennis player Dominika Cibulková lost in her first round of the women’s singles to Bulgarian player Tsvetana Pironkova in both sets 6:7 and 2:6.
“At the beginning I played well, I came relaxed to the court, I told myself that I have nothing to lose, as my rival plays well on grass,” Cibulková told TASR. “I played more backhands against her [Pironkova] than I should have, because she has got a better one. Another problem I had was stability: the grass was unbelievably slippery for me and I felt like a goat on the ice.”
Lukáš Lacko, another Slovak tennis player, lost to Germany’s Phillipp Petzschner 6:7 and 1:6.
On the other hand, tennis player Daniela Hantuchová scored a victory on the first day of the Olympic Games, beating her Chinese competitor Na Li after three sets 6:2, 3:6 and 6:3.
“I certainly appreciate this victory,” said Hantuchová, as quoted by TASR, after the match. “It means a lot to me, the Olympics are something very special; such a tournament only comes once in four years. The motivation was huge and I am very happy that I could beat such a [good] player in the first round already.”
Source: TASR, SITA
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
