Part one
Memorie.al/ Rare. Two spouses who have received the highest recognition in sports: “Honoured Master of Sports”. You cannot find a second case in Albania where two spouses are Honoured Masters of Sports. Marjeta and Kushtrim Zaçe, both loved and blessed by God, to become stars of Albanian sports…! Otherwise, the great Marjeta Pronjari would not have reached those heights! Three daughters rose solely by the hard work and compassion of their mother, because they lost their father very early…! Three daughters who, with their goodness, very quickly made their mother “forget” that she was without a husband and a son…! Every time she went to school, she felt bad because teacher Eftalia “embarrassed” her in front of the other parents…! – “You, Fluturije, don’t even ask and don’t even wait! Marjeta doesn’t move from her spot, there she is”… – and she would point her finger at the honour board, where first was her daughter’s photograph. So year after year.
Until one day, when she was in the seventh grade, as if to make her mother the happiest in the world, she “forces” the school administration to place her photograph in even larger dimensions in the school corridor. By then, Marjeta Pronjari was not only the pride of her class and school in academics, but also the sporting pride of Korça. In the national athletics championship held in Vlorë, she had jumped 1.40 cm in height, the same result achieved by the national champion, Sh. Nika from Shkodra.
The compassionate mother was happy, not knowing that this success would take her daughter out of the house…! The specialists of the Athletics Federation were surprised by the physical-sporting data the Korça girl had displayed and decided that she should come to Tirana. The aim was for this promising athlete to be treated and trained with contemporary parameters.
She starts secondary technical school at the “Vojo Kushi” Institute of Physical Culture. Her coach was appointed Taqo Duka, one of the best specialists, who had completed four-year studies in physical education in the Soviet Union. “A shy, simple, delicate girl…” – that’s how Taqo describes Marjeta in that first meeting. And they got to work.
Everything from scratch. Even a little more than that. Until then, she had trained and competed using the “scissors” style, which was not contemporary or productive. It was necessary to start with the “straddle” style (belly roll), which had indisputable advantages even though it was not very suitable for women, as it required speed, strength, and high physical preparation.
The physical parameters, passion, persistence, discipline, and belief of the young athlete became the main support for the privileged coach, who now found his work easier than his colleagues. For the first time, an Albanian female athlete trained twice a day. She rested through fatigue… She was and remains the model of the barbell for women.
It seems unbelievable, but Taqo insists when he says that even today, no one surpasses Marjeta in those 120 kg of continuous squats. The intensity and high scientific preparation caused a stir in sports circles. Stir but also turmoil…! “Taqo burned that great talent with his science,” “May he is cursed for not letting her enjoys being a mother”…!
But those evil mouths were shut by Marjeta herself, through the high results she achieved and the children she bore like stars…! We tease Professor Taqo and ask him if Marjeta could have gone higher…! Happy and proud of his athlete, he bursts into his passionate and very meaningful speech.
“With what could Marjeta have gone further?! With that glass of tea accompanied by cheese and marmalade?! Her friends fell on a sponge; she fell on sand, so much so that even today she might have signs of her falls on her body…! For me, she is a heroine of Albanian women. Deprived of the sensations and pleasures of her age, she made the name of Albania rank in Europe among the best in the high jump.
A 15-year-old child celebrating her birthday while competing in Turin, at the World Universiade. An entire stadium, standing up, supported her clearing that bar with thunderous applause…! Later we were at an international athletics meeting in Vienna, Austria.
Marjeta was judged the second most distinguished athlete, when the first was the German athletics champion, Gusenbur, and the third was the Austrian, Kristi, a decathlete, both of them world record holders. I will never forget the closing ceremony day. The president of the event, who was sitting on the podium, called me and invited me to sit by his side.
After congratulating me, he asked: – Where has Pronjari trained and who is her coach? In Albania – I replied, – and I am her coach…! He doubted more than he believed me, remembering the Albanian marvel named Marjeta Pronjari. No less emotion did we experience in Leipzig, at the 1968 European Championship.
Marjeta, with the result she achieved for her age, was alongside the highest bars in the world. In the press conference rooms, the surprise at Marjeta’s mastery was also justified by the merits of a ‘Russian’ coach because I spoke Russian very well. But when they learned that I too was Albanian, they shrugged their shoulders in wonder. I mentioned three international meetings, out of the four she had in total…!
Very few! She should have competed once every two weeks in such events, given the high levels she had reached… 15 years old – ‘Master of Sports’ and 18 years old – ‘Honoured Master of Sports’. Who else like her?! And as if those heights she reached and those emotions she experienced from the bar were not enough, she did not leave without trying the other love… volleyball.
She came with a great name, with the title ‘Honoured Master of Sports’, but as you watched her shine in front of the net, you would think that all that glory had been given to her by volleyball. Very quickly she was worthy of being a certainty and a trust, alongside Tamara Nikolla and Ela Tase. Otherwise, she would not have been five years in our national six. Thus, her brilliance in volleyball was the cherry on top of the brilliant sports career of Marjeta Zaçe.”
In the premises of the “Vojo Kushi” Institute of Physical Culture, fame and glory began and were cooked, but also… love. Both dressed in sports tracksuits, without knowing each other and without ever having seen each other, quite by chance, they exchange glances somewhere between the “Partizani” Sports Palace and the Institute. After a few metres apart, Kushtrim turns his head. At the same time, Marjeta had done the same thing. The simultaneous turning of heads could not be a coincidence but rather a sensation.
A few days later, a friend of his asks Kushtrim to go train at the Institute of Physical Culture, knowing that there are also girls there…! It so happened that somewhere on a corner of the track, he saw that girl “who had turned her head” a few days ago training in the high jump. They didn’t speak, but mentally, she was training on the basketball court and the basket seemed to him like a high jump bar…! From that day on, to Kushtrim, this concrete basketball court seemed many times better than the one with parquet in the sports palace…!
And to become a basketball player for the famous “Partizani” team was not easy. There is even a story. Told by Kushtrim himself with the same emotion, as if talking about an interesting film, where his own life resembles a script…!
Perhaps the length and accuracy of his shooting forced the physical education teacher, Lefter Shkëmbi, to include even the eight-year school student, Kushtrim Zaçe, in the “Minatori” team of Tepelena. The second-category championship was taking place in the city of Vlorë, and along with the adults was this 14-year-old, who was activated a little but stood out a lot…!
The delegate of the Basketball Federation, Naim Pilku, approaches the coach of “Minatori” and asks the name of that lad, whispering that; “this one is going to become a famous basketball player.” Few would have bet on a Tepelena native at that time, but here Naim has already won the bet…!
More than playing with the adults of the city or the baskets scored in those few minutes he played, that lad was delighted by the words of that man from Tirana. As if to please his family too, he told his parents about the event. While waiting to be happy, his father warned him: “Keep your eyes on your studies, son, because sports don’t put bread on the table…!”
After finishing eight-year school, the family sends him to his uncles in Durrës. To continue secondary school, but also to separate him from sports. Moreover, he might have remained unschooled because his mother’s people had a bad biography. He left sports with pain, but his parents’ word was law for him. We recall that at the beginning of this writing, we said that he too was blessed by God…!
In a physical education class, the teacher, Lutfi Bagoi, was left speechless by the beautiful basketball he played. While his classmates couldn’t even get the ball to the backboard, he was making baskets from all positions and distances. He pulls him aside and asks him. He doesn’t tell the truth, because he wasn’t interested in any good thing that might be offered to him. Nevertheless, the physical education teacher advised him to go one afternoon to the sports corner to meet the coach of the “Lokomotiva” youth basketball team, Dhimitraq Goga.
The poor boy was caressed and emotional as he compared the names “Minatori” and “Lokomotiva”, but everything was impossible. How could he risk himself and, even more, his uncles, by willingly revealing his birthplace and biography? But the teacher, convinced that what he had discovered in his talent was not ordinary, takes him away from the lesson hour, giving him an ultimatum: “If you don’t meet Dhimitraq, I will not accept you in my class”…!
The next day, he goes to the sports corner, apparently faster than necessary…! However, there was no one except a “worker” watering the basketball court. Annoyed by the wait, he asks whether Dhimitraq will come or not? Fate knocks on the Tepelena lad’s door again…! He was not the court worker but the adult team’s coach.
Instead of answering whether Dhimitraq is coming or not, after throwing him a ball and having him shoot from several positions, he says: “Come tomorrow to start training with the adults…”. Kushtrim Zaçe, 16 years old, forgets all the warnings and biographies and starts basketball again…!
He trained with the adults, but was mostly activated with the youth due to his age. Three times, together with his friends, they made “Lokomotiva” youth champions of Albania. Naturally, the national team also needed his talent and very soon made him part of it.
Zaçe’s name had now conquered the press and sports chronicles…! Meanwhile, the leaders of “Partizani” had their eyes on the Tepelena native from “Lokomotiva” and could hardly wait for him to reach military age.
But Kushtrim, despite the great name of this club, would never accept such a thing, as his main goal was to continue his education. Unaware those three months earlier a draft notice had been sent to him for military service, he enrolls at the State University of Tirana for Mechanical Engineering, while also playing for “Studenti”./Memorie.al
To be continued in the next issue
