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Seligman: Top quality training in my hometown is something I have always dreamed about
It has only been a little over a month since Sokol Centar opened its doors to its many visitors and already almost a 1000 children and adults are training in the most modern gymnastics centre in the region currently. Apart from the large number of recreational athletes, some of the best gymnasts from Osijek have found their second home in this high quality sport centre, among which Robert Seligman is surely the most famous.
He is still excited about the sport centre.
Seligman said: “It is a wonderful feeling when you have access to highest quality training facilities in your hometown, especially because I always dreamed about exercising and training in a gym like this one. There aren’t many modern and functional gymnastics centres like this one in the world and I have visited some of them, as part of mini-preparations for certain competitions. Now that I have a gym like this “at home”, and even now talking about it, honestly, I get goosebumps. It is something we should cherish and something I want to preserve for these young boys and girls that are training with me and preparing for competitions.”
For Seligman, 2018 was, and still is, very successful. After he won the gold at the National Championship and the silver at the Mediterranean Games at Tarragona, Robert’s dream has come true after many years – he won a medal at the European Championship again. His professional team hopes that his silver medal from Glasgow will be just a prelude to the most important competition this year – the World Championship at Doha, Qatar.
“My training regime relaxed a little after the European Championship because the new centre opened, and all of us feel that it is our own, so I was not only and exclusively focused on training. This can ultimately be a very good thing – when I am not as focused, it is possible I will be even more successful in Doha and give an excellent performance. I am not overly burdened by it because I already accomplished a lot and I know that my experience and everything I have done and accomplished so far can pay dividends, as it has now at the European Championship and the Mediterranean Games, as well as the Croatian Championship. At the beginning of the season I said that if I had two medals from those three major competitions I would be satisfied. I already have two, so whatever happens at the World Championship will be a success for me.”
For 10 years now Osijek has been host to one of the excellently organised stages of the World Gymnastics Cup, and Robert himself is a part of the team organising this competition. Seligman already has some experience in working and spending time with highest level gymnasts in his home town, and now he is happy to be able to spend time with them in his own gym from now on, in Sokol Centar. He believes that they will love the fact that the facility is in the centre of the city, as well as many other things.
“I am sure all of our guests will love the fact that the facility is located in a wonderful park, which combines something traditional, a beautiful building listed as a cultural monument, and a modern gymnastics gym. You cannot find that anywhere, at least I have never seen anything like that anywhere in the world. And the most beautiful thing about it is that it is our city. Our city filled with parks, our co-cathedral, theatres, Copacabana beach for everyone coming during the summer, and Baranja, everything we can offer. They have been coming every year for the World Cup, which they love, and they are coming back year after year in greater numbers, I am convinced it will be the same for Sokol Centar.”