Gojkovic shines in Euro championships

Vladimir Gojkovic, Montenegro’s outstanding utility player who plays for Herceg Novi and turned out for Neptunes last summer, helping the Balluta Bay team clinch the league and cup double, has been in the limelight in the current European waterpolo championships which are being held in Holland.

Returning to form part of his country’s national team, now under the direction of Ranko Perovic, Gojkovic is again shining as one of the kingpins for Montenegro. He has helped his country reach the semi-finals, scoring eight goals from six matches played so far.

Gojkovic netted a hat-trick against Greece in Wednesday’s quarter-final.

He was also among the goalscorers against Germany (13-9), Croatia (8-10) and Romania (11-8). Montenegro’s other victory was against the strong Serbians (11-7), runners-up in last year’s World Championships.

Incidentally, this match was marked by a scuffle between the countries’ coaches which could have ignited were it not for the intervention of Gojkovic who intervened to defuse the situation.

Montenegro will now meet Hungary, and Italy face Serbia in the semi-finals on Sunday, the day when Gojkovic celebrates his 31st birthday.

In 2004, Gojkovic was part of the combined Montenegro-Serbia national team that won the silver medal in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, while four years later in the Beijing Olympics, he played for Montenegro when the team finished fourth.

It is to be noted that another acquaintance of Maltese waterpolo, Igor Gocanin, a former Sliema player who eventually coached the Blues a few years ago, was in charge of Macedonia, another Balkan country who were eliminated in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.