From the very founding of the women’s club, great attention was devoted to working with the youngest players. Alongside the senior team, coach Laslo Makra established a Bowling School which, in a short period of time, produced a large number of talented and successful female bowlers. Bowlers from Novi Bečej achieved particularly notable results in the cadet and junior categories, and some of them later left a lasting mark on senior bowling as well.
The first to shine was Đenđi Kiš. In 1986, in Zrenjanin, she won the title of SFR Yugoslav Youth Champion, and the following year she made her debut for the Yugoslav national team in Igelheim, Germany.
At the Danube Cup in Austria in 1988, she won a gold medal in the pairs competition together with Vladimir Goljanić from Croatia. A year later, at the 4th World Junior Championships in Celje, she won a silver medal with the Yugoslav national team.
She concluded her junior career by competing at the 5th World Championships in Linz, Austria, in 1991. However, her greatest success came as a senior. At the “B” World Championships in Prague in 1996, she won a silver medal with the Yugoslav national team.
It took a full ten years for another medal from a major international competition to return to the town on the Tisa River. That achievement was delivered to the people of Novi Bečej by junior Ivana Eremić, who won a silver medal with the Yugoslav national team at the 8th World Championships in Trebišov in 1997.
Following that success, Ivana Eremić competed at three more World Championships – in Opava in 1999 (Czech Republic), Koper in 2001 (Slovenia), and Augsburg in 2003 (Germany). At all three championships, the Yugoslav junior team finished in the same position – sixth place.
Julijana Bata, after winning a gold medal at the national junior championships, made her debut for the junior national team in Opava in 1999. Two years later, she delivered a notable performance at the World Championships in Koper.
She was particularly successful at the 11th World Junior Championships in Augsburg in 2003, where she won a bronze medal in the combined competition with a total score of 1,116 pins (528, 563, 543).
A special chapter in the history of Novi Bečej bowling belongs to Laslo Makra, a true legend not only of Novi Bečej bowling, but also of Yugoslav and, later, Serbian bowling. His name is closely associated with the greatest achievements of Novi Bečej bowling, as well as with the success of the country’s junior national teams.
Makra also had an exceptionally long tenure as a national team coach. He served as selector from 1997 to 2006. He led the junior women’s national team at five World Championships – in Trebišov in 1997, Opava in 1999, Koper in 2001, Augsburg in 2003, and Náchod in 2005. He coached the cadet women’s team in Blansko in 1998 and Celje in 2000, while he led the senior women’s national team in Košice in 2008.
With the junior national team, he won two silver medals – in Trebišov in 1997 and Náchod in 2005.
For his outstanding contribution to the promotion of bowling, his achievements in 2000, and the European Cup title won in Skopje, Laslo Makra received a Commendation from the Government of the Republic of Serbia in 2001. The award was personally presented to him by the then Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, Dr. Zoran Đinđić.
The list of female medal winners at World Championships is completed by Livia Santo.
She made her debut at the World Cadet Championships in Bolesławiec, Poland, in 2004. The following year, at the 12th World Junior Championships in Náchod, Czech Republic, she won two medals. With the Serbia and Montenegro national team, she won a silver medal, while in the highly attractive sprint discipline she claimed a bronze medal.
Livia Santo won two more medals wearing the Serbian national team jersey at the World Cup for women under 23 in Košice, Slovakia, in 2007. She won silver in the pairs competition together with Marija Komarek, while she took bronze in the combined competition with a score of 1,746 pins (564, 616, 566).
Livia Santo won her final medal as a member of Jedinstvo in 2008 in Gostyń, Poland. It was a bronze medal in the individual competition.
Thus, Đenđi Kiš, Ivana Eremić, Julijana Bata and Livia Santo, together with the dedication and expertise of coach Laslo Makra, became part of a generation that carried the name of Novi Bečej far beyond Serbia and onto the international bowling scene. Their medals and appearances at World Championships remain permanently recorded in the history of bowling in Novi Bečej.
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