Croatia's top athlete Marino Bloudek is ready for the European Championships in Birmingham, where he aims for the 800m final. He is especially pleased that his fiancée Natalija Švenda will join him at the major competition.
Croatian athletics, three decades after Branko Zorko, once again has a middle-distance runner who can make a mark at major competitions. Marino Bloudek, a six-time Croatian record holder, is the main hope for the European Championships starting next Monday in Birmingham. He is putting the finishing touches on his preparations at Rogla and says: "Everything is in perfect order."
Last year in Madrid, Bloudek broke the famous 800m record of Luciano Sušanj (1:44.07), which had stood for 50 years and 10 months, running two laps in 1:44.01. With that feat, he confirmed his status as Croatia's best athlete, and behind him are semifinals at the European and World Outdoor Championships and the final of the World Indoor Championships in Toruń last February.
Marino Bloudek's path to the top has not been easy. After becoming European junior champion in Grosseto in 2017, he spent several years "drowning in mediocrity." He left his hometown of Virovitica for Pula, where he worked with Milovan Savić, a great middle-distance runner from the 1970s. Then in Rijeka he began working with Azuz Simchic, then the fitness coach of tennis player Elena Rybakina, who now works in the camp of Mirra Andreeva. After competing at three major events in a row, Bloudek moved to Dinamo-Zrinjevac and began training with Mladen Kršek.
Preparations for the European Championships are going flawlessly. "After three weeks of training in Livigno, where we trained hard, upon returning to Zagreb due to extreme conditions we decided to freshen up at Rogla before heading to Birmingham next week. Before that, last Friday at home we did a hard workout, a dress rehearsal for the big competition, and it went very well; the indicators have never been better," Bloudek said for Sportske novosti.
The indoor season, in which he set indoor records at 800 and 1500 meters, was followed by a summer with fewer races, but all of them at Gold category meetings and always in the top three. "I didn't have many races, but all of them were at Gold category meetings and I was top 3 in each. The Croatian record at 1000 meters in Ostrava is also a good indicator; I'm only sorry that in Hengelo and at the Hanžeković Memorial I ran slightly weaker results," Bloudek said.
Those "weaker" results were 1:44.63 in Hengelo and 1:45.00 at the Hanžeković Memorial, which just a year earlier would have been cause for delight. "Last year I would have been overjoyed with those results, but now the criteria are a bit different. That's a normal thing in athletics; my goals are higher, and the world standard has also moved, so I constantly need to improve to maintain a high level," Bloudek explained.
At the European Championships, Bloudek's primary focus will not be on time but on placement. "Lately, you could say this has become a European discipline. Of course, we have a few world 'giants,' but there are also many European runners at the top, with small differences between us. It's true, my time at the European Championships will not be primary; tactics are important because in the heats and semifinals you advance by placement," he said.
He draws additional confidence from the final at the World Indoor Championships in Toruń. "It's not just the World Championships final that gave me extra confidence, but also the excellent preparations, good results, and their consistency. Experience has also accumulated; good performances at 1500 meters show I have endurance, I'm gradually getting better, and it all led to my goal in Birmingham being a place in the final, though I must be honest and say that a better placement than the 15th I achieved at the last European Championships would also satisfy me," Bloudek said.
A week ago, at the Croatian Championships, Bloudek withdrew from the 800m after the 1500m race, which raised concerns about a potential injury. "It wasn't serious. Earlier that week, on Tuesday in St. Moritz, we did some specific work, running 'four hundreds,' and the coach was very pleased with how I did it, but combined with travel and returning from altitude, by Saturday I hadn't fully recovered. I felt I had to stop and said I wouldn't run the 800 because I didn't want to go 'into the red' given my focus is on the European Championships," Bloudek explained.
Croatia will have 16 representatives in Birmingham, and Bloudek is especially pleased that among them is his fiancée Natalija Švenda, who will compete in the 400m hurdles. "First of all, I must say I'm very glad we have such a large team. In recent weeks and months, I've been following the 'road to Birmingham' on a daily basis, the development of the world ranking situation. Many of our athletes have shown great progress. Just last weekend, Nino Jambrešić (1500m), Bruno Belčić (3000m steeplechase), and Nina Vuković (800m) had great performances in Belgium, but I must say I'm happiest about my fiancée and her qualification for the European Championships. I got a new roommate for the big competition," Bloudek laughed.
Bloudek has long been among the top 20 in the world rankings, and his results are consistent. He opened the season at the Diamond League in China with 1:45.02, which didn't fully satisfy him, but after analyzing the splits and the second lap, he realized he could be pleased. "I can definitely conclude that I'm now in continuity at the top level," Bloudek said.
