The best Croatian biathlete Jakov Fak returned from South Korea, where he won the bronze medal at the World Biathlon Championship and achieved historic success. Of course, he is now an exceptionally popular and wanted athlete in Croatia, therefore his confusion is not surprising.

For him, Croatia before the world championship and after are two different worlds. There will no

longer be a person who follows sports and does not know who Jakov Fak is. He is a 22-year-old student from Mrkopalj, who has been training biathlon for several years and he has spent his entire life in cross-country skiing. He was already the summer biathlon world senior and junior champion, which means he has an excellent career ahead of him.

The Croatian Olympic Committee (HOO) is aware of this, which has included him on the A list of candidates for the Olympic Games in Vancouver. Thus, he has received the greatest amount of financial support, nearly 345,000 kuna (approximately 46,000 euros). Furthermore, the Croatian Biathlon Association is almost done constructing the biathlon centre in Mrkopalj in order for Fak to prepare well for the winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, without having to travel just to go training.

This all means that best possible conditions are secured for an exceptional athlete and stories about him performing for Slovenia might “go down the drain”. Jakov did not wish to comment on this, he entirely dismissed all talk about it and the Croatian Olympic Committee respected his decision. Possibly, they will discuss Slovenia once all competitions he is facing are over. However, Fak touched on what was waiting for him in Croatia.

- I would like to thank everyone, they threw me a lovely welcome and I hop I did a lot for the promotion of Croatia and biathlon. My result resounded all over the world and this has created a positive atmosphere, which I am pleased about. Now I have to go to Vancouver for a test race before the Olympic Games and then two more races of the World Cup – Jakov said, who received 19,000 e-mails of support.

Take a look at the attached photo gallery: Biathlete Jakov Fak Welcomed In Mrkopalj.