Unique sporting family in Serbia Featured
- Written by Aleksandar Cvejic
BELGRADE: The family of Dr. Milan Tuba, doctor of computer science and professor at Belgrade University’s Faculty of Mathematics and at Belgrade’s Megatrend University, is unique in the world of sport in Serbia, but there are probably no similar examples in Europe or elsewhere. Dr. Tuba’s four daughters are all part of national squads in two sports – wrestling and judo.
Dr. Tuba and his wife Gordana have six children with unusual names who are all active in sport. The four girls and two boys have a total of nine names and an unusual surname.
Eva (born 1991, Manhattan, USA), Ira Aurora (1993, Richmond, USA), Ana (1989, Manhattan, USA) and Una Svetlana (1994, Belgrade) all performed for Serbia at the 59th European freestyle wrestling championships held in Belgrade. Viktor Milan, the oldest brother, and the youngest boy, Milan, are also involved in recreational sports, as is their father. Mother Gordana is the only one not to participate in sports activities. All six children are following in their father’s footsteps, with mathematics as their professional choice.
It is unknown in the history of sport for four sisters to represent the colours of any country in any sport. No such examples have been recorded in the former Yugoslavia and the present Serbia, either.
The Tuba sisters are part of the Beograd wrestling club, and the Mladost Zemun judo club. In both sports they participated at national level in all three age categories.
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The Tuba sisters’ wrestling trainer is Sreten Stankov, and their judo trainer Srbislav Pantić.
Sports experts see as the most talented Una, who has so far won three medals in younger categories at European championships, and has taken another medal at European level in judo.
The sisters say the technical characteristics of the two sports are similar, except for the attire, and the two sports’ seasons do not overlap, so that they can participate in both sports throughout the year.
All four have participated in the Serbian championships in judo, which they have been training for fifteen years. They have been involved in wrestling for four years, enough to be accepted to play for the national team.
The sisters, who have a combined total of over 1,500 awards from various sports events, began wrestling in the free wrestling school based in the Djura Strugar primary school in the Belgrade district of Zemun, their coach being Sreten Stankov.
The family’s unusual surname comes from their grandfather, an ethnic Hungarian from the village of Vračev Gaj, located between Pančevo and Vršac in the Province of Vojvodina.