Bosnia-Herzegovina
Main sources: Skøytenytt, WSSSA National All Time & Encyclopedia.
Memories of Sarayevo
Bosnia-Herczegovina is situated somewhat outside the mainstream of speedskating, but the winters can be cold, and in the capital Sarayevo, there was a wintersportclub as early as 1893, which practised speedskating. After this, it is rather quiet on the speedskating front, until Sarayevo, then part of Yugoslavia, was granted the Olympic Games in 1984 and had to build a rink. In order to have participants as well, they hired a professional trainer, Dutchman Ab Gerritsen, the coach of Annie Borckink, Olympic gold winner in the 1500 m 1980. He could not perform miracles during the 2 years he worked there, and the Yugoslav participants were firmly placed at the bottom of the Olympic result lists.
From 1986 until 1990, Bibija Kerla and Behudin Merdovic participated regularly in those of the international championships that took place in Europe and closed in somewhat on the other participants, but were still a good way off them. Then a few skaters with a little more fundamental training started emerging from the junior classes, which had increased gradually in number. At the European championship in Sarayevo 1991 and the Olympic games 1 year afterwards, they fielded debutants who did not actually achieve more than their predecessors, but seemed to have more potential.
However, by then, the war had already started, Serbs invaded Sarayevo, using the Olympic Stadium for artillery practice and levelled it completely. Without facilities, this emerging speedskating nation was doomed, but one of the debutants from Albertville, Slavenko Likic, escaped to Sweden and continued skating. For a few years he represented Bosnia in world cups, achieved reasonably decent times and for a while seemed to represent a last hope for his country's in speedskating. However, since 1998, no BIH skaters have appeared on international rinks.
The Zetra rink in Sarayevo has been banished to the land of insubstantial memory, but it is well remembered, for it was used well during its existence. It staged 4 major international events, the JWC 1983 won by Andrey Bobrov and Angela Stahnke, the 1984 Olympics where Sergey Fokichev, Gaetan Boucher (2), Tomas Gustafson, Igor Malkov, Christa Rothenburger, Karin Enke (2) and Andrea Schöne won the distances, the women's World Championship 1985 won by Andrea Schöne, and the European Championship 1991, with Gunda Kleemann and Johann Olav Koss as winners. The total destruction of the rink was a chief inspiration for the Olympic Aid ideas of Koss, and one of the results of the movement is that the Olympic indoor ice arena now is rebuilt, so possibly, shorttrackers will emerge from Bosnia in the future. But there are no plans for rebuilding the Zetra Olympic Stadium.
Bosnian records:
Behudin Merdovic 41.08 Heerenveen Feb 26 1989
Behudin Merdovic 1.21.75 Heerenveen Feb 26 1989
Slavenko Likic 2.04.78 Hamar Dec 13 1997
Bajro Cenanovic 4.37.0 Medeo Mar 23 1991
Slavenko Likic 7.28.34 Hamar Dec 14 1997
Behudin Merdovic 17.14.98 Sarayevo Mar 3 1985
Behudin Merdovic 165.650 Heerenveen Feb 25-26 1989
41.67 - 1.24.05 - 41.08 - 1.21.75
Bajro Cenanovic 180.446 Medeo Mar 23-24 1991
42.9 - 4.37.0 - 2.10.2 - 7.59.8
Slavenko Likic 190.343 Göteborg/Ruddalen Feb 10-11 1996
42.43 - 8.20.6 - 2.16.09 - 17.29.8
Bibija Kerla 44.47 Calgary Feb 22 1988
Bibija Kerla 1.30.89 Calgary Feb 26 1988
Bibija Kerla 2.21.69 Calgary Feb 27 1988
Bibija Kerla 5.19.31 Inzell Nov 20 1987
Bibija Kerla 9.18.24 Sarayevo Jan 19 1986
Bibija Kerla 183.255 Heerenveen Feb 25-26 1989
45.28 - 1.32.84 - 44.57 - 1.33.97
Bibija Kerla 198.493 Baselga di Piné Jan 25-26 1989
46.29 - 2.29.43 - 1.35.80 - 5.26.96
Bibija Kerla 217.804 Inzell Feb 23-24 1985
49.22 - 5.33.37 - 2.48.81 - 9.27.53
Rink records Zetra:
Nikolay Gulyayev 38.13 Jan 18 1991
Gaetan Boucher 1.15.80 Feb 14 1984
Leo Visser 1.56.18 Jan 19 1991
Andrej Bobrov 4.13.29 Mar 5 1983
Johann Olav Koss 6.53.28 Jan 18 1991
Johann Olav Koss 14.08.38 Jan 19 1991
Andrea Schöne 41.0 Feb 9 1985
Karin Enke 1.21.61 Feb 13 1984
Karin Enke 2.03.42 Feb 9 1984
Gunda Kleemann 4.24.25 Jan 19 1991
Gunda Kleemann 7.31.91 Jan 20 1991
Representatives in senior championships and Olympic Games:
1.Behudin Merdovic 9 times
2.Bibija Kerla 8
3.Bajro Cenanovic 2
4.Nihad Mahmutovic, and
Slavenko Likic 1.