2022 Pannonian Challenge Highlights and Report

The 23rd edition of the Pannonian Challenge started on Thursday, June 16th with the INLINE discipline. This year the festival of extreme sports and urban culture attracted many athletes to Osijek and piqued the interest of the audience – both locals and guests from other parts of Croatia.

There were two INLINE disciplines – Amateur and Pro. Roller skaters were the first to show their skills in the INLINE Amateur discipline, in which the Czech Robin Konečný won. Second and third place went to two Hungarians – David Balla and Bertalan Roland. After them, in the skate park, with the support of the audience, the competitors in the INLINE Pro discipline came out, Joe Atkinson from the United Kingdom showed the most skills on rollers. CJ Wellsmore from Australia finished in second place, while Tin Hadžiomerspahić from Croatia was third.

“I feel very good today, I just won the Pannonian for the 3rd time so I am very happy and always happy to return to Osijek. I’ve been on the podium so many times, that I’ve already stopped counting. I’m always happy with the audience here in Osijek, they cheer loudly which gives us motivation for some crazy tricks,” said, Joe Atkinson.

On Friday, the SKATE competition was organised in two categories – Amateur and Pro. Amongst the competitors in the Amateur category, the winner was Luka Kostic from Germany, who was joined Kristóf Szalai from Hungary in second place, and Fanni Konda, also from Hungary in third. In the late afternoon, the Pro competitors stepped onto the scene, and since the weekend had only started, the grandstand was filled to the brim. Carried by the positive energy, the winners were Martin Atanasov from Bulgaria, Niko Feratović from Switzerland and Bruno Vranić from Croatia.

“I feel great, and we’ve had an interesting and a good day. I expected the win, seeing as I’ve been training since I was 7, and now I’m 18. My advice for the others would be to have fun and not compare themselves to anyone but rather do their best“ – Martin Atanasov commented.

On the final day of the 23rd edition of the Pannonian Challenge there was no lack of fantastic sports performances, and especially no lack of wholehearted support from the audience that enjoyed watching imperssive BMX tricks.

The competition in the BMX discipline had three categories. First, the competitors in the BMX Amateur discipline showed their mastery, where Denis Lalić from Croatia was the best, while the second and third place winners were Frantisek Bliznak from the Czech Republic and Kristian Gergeta from Croatia.

In the second category, the women’s performances were equal to the male competitors. Throughout the competition, they had the strong support of the audience that was slowly coming for the grand finale. The winner was Valeriia Liubimova. Second place went to Analia Zacarias, and third place went to Kim Lea Müller.

The final competition of the 23rd Pannonian Challenge was the BMX Pro discipline. It gathered the best of the best, but still, Marin Ranteš received the biggest applause. In this traditionally strong category, the winner was American Jacob Thiem. Marin Ranteš from Croatia was second, Declan Brooks from the United Kingdom was third.

“Everything is great, I am very happy to be driving again, especially here, at the Pannonian Challenge. I love coming back here, I feel blessed and grateful for it. My message is that you can do anything if you put it that way in your head, of course with dedicated work“ said Jacob Thiem.