Sport
STA, 1 August 2019 - Slovenian football champions Maribor qualified for the third round of the UEFA Champions League qualifiers by eliminating AIK in Stockholm on Wednesday evening by virtue of scoring more away goals. Maribor had to work extra time as the regular time ended with a 3:3 tie on aggregate.
After beating AIK 2:1 in Maribor last week, the perennial Slovenian champions survived the tough match in Stockholm by losing 3:2 after extra time and advancing to the next round of qualifying on away goals.
It was Romanian Alexandru Cretu to score the decisive goal for Maribor in the 116th minute with a header assisted by Mitja Viler, bringing Maribor closer to what would be the club's third appearance in the group stage of the Champions League.
"I don't feel like a hero, this is a result of the hard work of the entire team. It was a tough match, we knew that it would not be easy because they have players who fight hard all the time," Cretu said after the match.
In the third round, Maribor will play the Norwegian champions Rosenborg, which eliminated the Belarusian champions BATE Borisov. The first leg will be played in Slovenia's second largest city on 7 August.
Maribor head coach Darko Milanič said that the team had believed in success until the last minute. "Both teams were too good for this stage, and it's unfortunate that we met at this point already. Well, it turned out great for us.
"Unbelievable! This is a match everybody will remember, not only players, but you and the fans too," he told reporters, adding that Maribor was already looking ahead and preparing for the next opponent Rosenborg.
Milanič said he had never coached against the Norwegian champions, but that he had been told by sport director Zlatko Zahovič that Maribor was "in for a hard fight with a very well physically prepared team."
If Maribor fail to advance past Rosenborg and secure the last qualifying round for the Champions League, they will enter the last round of qualifying for the UEFA Europa League.
Slovenia’s Olympic judo champion, Tina Trstenjak, won her first IJF gold medal in some 18 months at Zagreb Grand Prix over the weekend, beating Japan’s Nami Nabekura in the under 63 kg event. In the over 78 kg group, Anamari Velensek won a bronze medal.
July 26, 2019
The latest in a string of young basketball players who have left Slovenia for Real Madrid is a talented fourteen-year-old called Jan Vide, born in 2005 and a member of Helios Suns from Domžale.
This is the second year in the row that a young member of Helios left for the Spanish giant. Last year it was Urban Klavžar (2004) who left his Helios orange jersey for the white Royal one.
In the last season Vide played two tournaments with Real Madrid’s junior team, which led to the decision to invite the young basketball player to join the other three young Slovenes already playing for the club. Besides Klavžar, these are Dan Duščak (2002) and Žiga Samar (2001). Real Madrid is also a home to a couple of professional Slovenian basketball players, Klemen Prepelič and Anthony Randolph, both members of the Slovenian national team who won the 2017 European Basketball Championship.
Some observers have already pointed to similarities between Jan Vide and Luka Dončić, who received the NBA Rookie of the Year award this June. Luka joined Real Madrid’s under-16 team at the age of 13 and became a regular player in Real Madrid’s senior team during the 2015-2016 season, before joining the NBA and Dallas Mavericks in 2018.
Sports commentators emphasize that emerging new names in junior leagues are good news for the future of the Slovenian national team, which will defend its 2017 title at the next European Championship in 2021.
STA, 25 July 2019 - Slovenian football champions Maribor opened the second round of qualifying for the UEFA Champions League against AIK Stockholm with a 2:1 win at home on Wednesday evening. The team is happy with the win, but is aware that the away goal scored by the Swedish side will make the return leg next week very difficult.
Some 7,800 spectators in Ljudski Vrt stadium saw Maribor score early in the match, with Rok Kronaveter convert in the 6th minute, after which the Slovenian champions continued to apply pressure.
But the 12-time Swedish champions responded, as Henok Goitom scored a goal in the 28th minute with a diagonal shot from the left side of the box.
It took Maribor only ten minutes to score the second goal, with Saša Ivković converting a header after a corner kick by Kronaveter.
Maribor head coach Darko Milanič said the win was a self-confidence boost. "We have a win in our pocket, and we have played a good game, which will certainly be helpful in the future."
Milanič said that the opponent was very difficult, "perhaps even too good for this stage of competition", which is why he expects a tough return leg on 31 July. He is aware that the away goal scored by AIK is a problem.
"A majority of things in our game were really excellent, it's a shame that we were too offensive after we scored the first goal and let them score the equaliser."
Milanič expects a different game from the Swedish champions in Stockholm. "We have to be prepared for much more tempo. We will need to adjust, calm down their game and be good in possessing the ball," he concluded.
The winner of the encounter will play in the next round of qualifying against the winner of the matchup between BATE Borisov of Belarus and Rosenborg of Norway.
After last week’s shocking 9th place finish Janja Garnbret did much better this week, finishing 2nd in Briançon, France. In first place was Korea’s Chaehyun Seo, while in third came Japan’s Natsuki Tani. Two other Slovenian women made the top 8, with Mia Krampl 4th and Vita Lukan 7th.
Turning to the men’s competition, all three medals were won by Japanese climbers, with the gold going to Hidemasa Nishida, followed by Hiroto Shimizu and Shuta Tanaka. The highest ranked Slovene with Domen Škofic, in 7th place.
The weekend put the Japanese in first place in the team rankings, with 375 points, Slovenia second (224), and the USA third (179)
More details results can be found at the IFSC site.
STA, 16 July 2019 - Slovenian mountaineer Janez Svoljšak, a member of the Kranj Alpine Association, has died during an expedition in Pakistan, the Slovenian Alpine Association (PZS) said on Monday.
The 25-year-old from Škofja Loka (NW) died in a base camp under the 6,650 m Tahu Rutum mountain in the Karakoram mountain range in the wee hours of Monday.
Svoljšak reportedly uttered a wheezing sound during sleep, passed out and stopped breathing. His team started resuscitating him immediately but gave up after three hours of futile efforts. Arrangements are now being made to bring his body back to Slovenia.
Svoljšak was an established mountaineer, having conquered peaks in Pakistan, Patagonia, the Canadian Rockies as well as Montana and Colorado in the US.
His career highlights include climbing the Schmidt route up the North Face of the Matterhorn alone as well as a sole single-day ascent to the summit of Mont Blanc via the Innominata ridge - both achievements are considered a tour-de-force of mountaineering.
In May, he and a fellow mountaineer completed a series of climbs in remote mountains of Alaska on routes that no human ever set foot on before, conquering three virgin peaks in the process.
The deceased mountaineer was the European Champion in ice climbing in 2016 as well as the winner of one of the World Cup games.
By now fans know the routine – Janja Garnbret will come out on top of the Lead and Bouldering events, with her peers competing for second and third places. But this weekend saw a shock result in Chamonix, France, as the 20-year old Slovene, who already has more victories than any other competitor in the sport’s history, reached just 9th place in the semi-finals, not even making it through to the final round. With Garnbret watching the top place on the podium went to Korea’s Chaehyun Seo, followed by China’s YueTong Zhang and Austria’s Jessica Pilz. The highest ranked Slovene was Lučka Rakovec, in 7th place, while Mia Krampl was 11th and Vita Lučkan 12th.
The men’s event was won by the Czech Adam Ondra, followed by Germany’s Alexander Megos and Austria’s Jakob Schubert. The top Slovene men in Chamonix were 18th placed Martin Bergant and 20th placed Domen Škofic.
STA, 13 July 2019 - The 29th season of the Slovenian football premier league will get under way today, featuring Maribor as the defending champion and nine more teams looking to upset the most dominant team in the history of Slovenian club football.
Maribor have won 16th Slovenian league titles so far and are followed by Olimpija of Ljubljana, which has restored its status as a serious rival in recent years, managing to snatch the title in 2016 and 2018.
While things were also fairly close in the last season, a strong challenge by Olimpija is looking somewhat less likely ahead of the new session, with Maribor having acquired the Ljubljana team's leading scorer and the no. 2 scorer overall in the last season Rok Kronaveter.
Maribor, who have successfully began their qualifying campaign for the Champions League, already have the league's top scorer, Luka Zahović, the son of Slovenia's former international star Zlatko Zahović. What is more, the team has been joined by the fourth best scorer of the league in the last season, midfielder Rudi Požeg Vancaš.
"I'm happy with the roster. It clearly has quality and can meet the demands we have," Maribor's head coach Darko Milanič told the press. He said the goal was to repeat the last season, when Maribor also made it to the final of the Slovenian Cup competition and to the third round of qualifying for the UEFA Europa League.
The Cup was won by Olimpija, which lost its first qualifying match for the Europa League on Thursday and has mostly been making headlines in recent weeks over reports its owner Milan Mandarić is about to sell the club to an Italian businessman.
The team's coach Safet Hadžić in confident nonetheless: "I'm very happy with the preparations... perhaps I still expect a reinforcement in a position or two, but momentarily all is ok. We're a club that is chasing the title, but we should not underestimate the other teams. Domžale and the rest are not naive."
Domžale, whose two titles date back to 2007 and 2008, is indeed looking as a potential challenger, having reinforced the team significantly. The club leadership says the goal is to advance step by step and get close to Maribor and Olimpija.
The new season will be opened today at 6pm by the Tabor Sežana - Aluminij encounter, while Maribor will also play, against Triglav at 8.15pm.
A total of 36 rounds will be played until 16 May, with a winter break scheduled between 14 December and 22 February. All the matches will be broadcast by TV Slovenija or Planet TV.
Surprising no one who’s been following her dominance of the sport throughout her short, but storied career – with the 20-year-old already having won more World Cup Events than anyone else – Janja Garnbret took another first place in Villars, Switzerland. She was joined on the Lead podium by South Korea’s Chaehyun Seo in second place, and Japan’s Ai Mori in third. Two other Slovenian women made the top ten, with Mia Krampl in fifth place and Lučka Rakovec sixth. Garnbret comes on stage at the two hour 17 minute mark in the following video.
Turning to the men’s event, this was won by Switzerland’s Sascha Lehmann, followed by YuFei Pan (China) and Alexander Megos (Germany), with Slovenia’s Domen Škofic having to make do with a fourth placed finish.
STA, 30 June 2019 - The Slovenian women's national basketball team will play in the play-off match for the quarter-finals of the EuroBasket as it ended the group stage in Serbia's Niš on Sunday in third place in Group C.
The final ranking for Slovenia was determined after a 57:75 loss to Italy today.
Slovenia opened the campaign at the EuroBasket by losing 84:88 to Hungary on Tuesday, bouncing back from the loss the next day by defeating Turkey 62:55.
Slovenia already secured the play-off match for the quarter-finals in Belgrade by beating Turkey, while today's match only determined the seeding.
Slovenia's opponent is yet to be determined, but it will be a team from Group D featuring the hosts Serbia, Belarus, Belgium and Russia.
"By making it to the knock-out stage in Belgrade, we have made our wishes come true, and places Slovenian women basketball a level higher," said head coach Damir Grgić, adding that the team needed to continue with such an approach.
This is the second the Slovenian woman basketballers participate in the European basketball championship, coming after 2017, when Slovenia finished 14th with a 1:2 record.
Spend any time in Slovenia and you’ll soon notice how active the people are, especially when it comes to enjoying the great outdoors. Whether it’s hiking, biking, mountaineering, skiing or simply foraging in the woods for mushrooms and plants, a close relationship with nature and the joys of physical exertion seem to be baked into the national character, as evident in the appearance of Mount Triglav on the Slovenian flag.
Of course, not all such activities take place on dry land, nor would they in a country blessed with so many rivers and lakes. And it’s a water-based sport that’ll be the focus of much attention this weekend, as one of the stages of the Canoe Slalom World Cup is being held, once again, in Tacen, where visitors will be able thrill to world-class athletes competing on a world-class course, all in the open air and not far from the centre of Ljubljana. Perhaps best of all, the tickets are only €5 a person, and can be bought at the event, which takes place at the Kajak kanu klub Tacen, Marinovševa cesta 8A. Note that children under the age of 15 enter free, and that dogs are not allowed.
The action officially runs for three days, from Friday 28 June to Sunday the 30th, but the programme started on Monday with various training events, and Day 1, on the official schedule, is Thursday, with extreme slalom time trails in the afternoon, and course construction and demonstration in the evening. The formal event then begins at 09:00 Friday, with heats for Groups 1 and 2, and runs until 18:00. Saturday then has the Group 1 and C2Mx semi-finals, finals and medal ceremony, the day starting at 09:00 and ending at 13:15. The same happens on Sunday for Group 2 and Extreme Slalom event, with the day running longer, to 16:00. The full programme can be found here, while all the events will also be livestreamed (here).
So if you’ve been meaning to get the River Soča all summer, but never found a free weekend, then why not head to Tacen to enjoy some white-water action, the kind you can safely watch from the stands with a cold drink in your hand.
