One year on: Five minutes with Kadric Benis-Piramida

Bosnia’s sitting volleyball star takes a few minutes out of his day to reflect on the gold medal his team won just one year ago. 10 Sep 2013
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Bosnia's men's sitting volleyball team

Bosnia's men's sitting volleyball team celebrates after beating Iran for the gold medal at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

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By VolleySLIDE

It was the game that we were all looking forward to, most of us cried for joy, as the gold medal is a great success for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

How did you feel going into the final game?

In the beginning, I felt great, but it had been a hard Games for us, with matches getting harder and harder as you would expect. But during the match itself for a good part of the game I was crying, I do not know why.

What are your main memories about the match?

My main memory of the game is that it is one I will never forget, trust me. I was brought into play instead of Adnan Manke, we had lost the first set and the second set was poised at 20-19 to Iran.

They had an attack where I made a fantastic block to level the score at 20-20. And that was the end of Iran. We started to play great, they did not have a chance. Back home in Bosnia the story that is that my block was at a crucial moment, it's kind of my main memories.

Can you remember how you felt afterwards?

It was the game that we were all looking forward to, most of us cried for joy, as the gold medal is a great success for Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was such a joyous moment that I even passed out afterwards, but later after we arrived back into the Paralympic Village in our apartments, we sat out until dawn, messages on our phones coming in from Bosnia – and on Facebook too – just congratulating us on the victory was great.

What are your best memories of London 2012 Games now?

Naturally, memories are of my own team for the Paralympic Games, a delightful, beautiful city and just my participation in the Paralympics. These were my first Olympics. We visited all the famous sites of London it was great – just fantastic memories.

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