Austrian talent Marko Bubanja switches to Montenegro

Former Austrian World Cadet Championships bronze medallist Marko Bubanja is going to switch nation from Austria to Montenegro. Bubanja has a double passport of both countries and lives in Vienna since his fourth, announced Austrian portal Laola today. Bubanja who won Youth Olympic team bronze in Nanjing in 2014 and former silver medallist at European Cadet Champion (held in Montenegro) will likely be able to start with a World Cup in the end of January.

The 19-year old double Austrian senior champion is one of the biggest talents of Austria. His last Austrian match was at the European Club Championships in Vienna where he defeated 2014 World bronze medallist Kirill Voprosov in the Golden League in his category U81kg.

Bubanja, who’s still a junior didn’t book junior success since his rocket start in the cadets U18, but seems to found his way in the seniors with this option. Last year his junior road was quite bumpy with disappointing results at European Championships and World Championships and also the European U23 Championships were not appealing. Bubanja did already experience a Grand Prix for Austria, last November in Jeju.

Bubanja’s coach Hubert Rohrauer believes that Bubanja can compete for a medal at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. For Bubanja is the sportive outlook much better as in Austria with participations in the IJF World Tour. The switch of Bubanja is not new for the Austrian Federation who was aware of the situation since the autumn. The Austrian Federation would be able to penalize the athlete for three year, but does not chose for this option and cooperates with the change.

Austria loses a talent, Montenegro can continue to build up a successful team. The Balkan country actually booked impressive progress over the last three years with European Junior and U23 Championships medals, EYOF and more than 13 European Cup medals in 2015. One of the most successful athletes of Montenegro is Arso Milic, so far successful; U81kg. Srdjan Mrvaljevic, the only World Championships finalist ever for his country also fights U81kg and may fight his last Olympic Games in Rio, now aged 31 years.