Darja Kokalj was born on January 29.th 1977, and thus she is an Aquarius - and she is a very typical one with all the characteristics like: honesty, sincerity, devotion to the truth and faithfulness, stability and determination. She is always smiling and in good temper, willing and prepared to offer help to those in need. She lives with her parents and her younger brother in Gradišče near Lukovica in central Slovenia, She went to primary school there as well, while she continued her studies at High School in Ljubljana-Šiška as a member of a Sport Class. Now she is preparing to become a Police Officer in Domžale, and her colleagues as well as the staff of the Police School are very proud of her and her achievements and they do try to help her with every step of her athletic career.

She has always been keen of athletics, (running especially) and as a junior athlete she was a member of AK Domžale, where between 1992 and 1995 there was a bunch of young, talented and very promising athletes - runners like: Bojana Vojska, Jasna Paladin, Metka Pungerčar, Damjan Barič, Boštjan Brnot and many others ...

All those young athletes used to be among the best in the country in their categories, unfortunately with the exception of only few of them they are now either lost in the crowd of average athletes or have quit their athletic career. Darja has always been known by her technique and admired for that by athletic experts and despite being absent from the track for over four years her technique remains untouched. Unfortunately some minor injuries and health trouble, so typical for the adolescence caused Darja's career to stop in 1993. Some "experts" in her club showed no understanding and no mercy for her trouble as they were only looking for results. Darja lost her motivation and decided to quit in December 1993. - in the very year when she was proclaimed the best junior athlete of the club and the community....

... and thus it happened. The words of one of the executives of her club who said at several occasions and in Slovenske Konjice on October 17.th 1993 again: "She will never be no good!", seemed to have come to be true. And thus Darja competed for her first athletic club in 1993 for the last time - the club for which she won so many medals and helped them to be well acquainted and appreciated in the country. The 15th. annual celebration of AK Domžale in November 1993 turned out to be ironically sad for her and no wonder she definitely decided to quit. Nobody in her club or community showed no regret and no mercy to her - even more, rumors and speculations which no coach or executive of the club should ever have said nor thought of about their own athlete, were being spread around the community with one aim only: to humiliate Darja.

The only one who seemed to have cared about her at that time was the journalist of Domžalske novice, the local newspaper, who wrote:

... The celebration, however, has not been just a pleasant event. It was quite bitter because of the previous announcement, that our best junior athlete Darja Kokalj decided to quit her promising career. It would be a pitty - not only for our Athletic club and the community but even more for Darja herself. Think twice, Darja! Quickest decisions are always the worst! ...

In the very same season, at 17, Darja achieved her most valuable success, when she as a student of Športna gimnazija Šiška from Ljubljana attended Junior World Championship 1993 in Alba - Italy. She took 2.nd place and silver medal in the World at 800 m, running 2:21:60 and was left behind by young Australian athlete König for 0:13 seconds only. She came back home with two silver medals since her team (with Brigita Langerholc - nowadays our national team member, among them) took second place in the World as well - only young Chinese athletes were better than our team!

All the above mentioned health trouble (mostly with her knees) really caused Darja to stop her training procedures for a long time and to cease competing, but despite well spread common opinion that she's lost for athletics, she has never thought like many "visionary" from Domžale and her ex club. Running for Darja means much, much more than just competing and hasting to prove she's the best, nor is she ruuning only for medals. No, running is simply her life stile, so there is no wonder she's come back after four years. And she's come back the way all real champions - born winners do!

In the late Spring 1998 she started again, only this time training and competing at middle and long distance races since she feels those are the distances where she can show the most and achieve the best results. She felt better and better and all the trouble with her knees seemed to have gone forever, so she decided to test her capabilities. In September 1998 she went to Atomske toplice and took 2.nd place at 6.000 m - she was beaten only by our well known marathon runner Helena Javornik. Darja considers this achievemnt as one of the most important mile-stones in her career, since she managed to prove to herself and to all the others she can do it. So she went to another race in Velenje only a fortnight later and won the race at 3.000 m. Later on this proved to be an announcement of a series of Darja's successes and wins in the season. From Oktober 1998 up to now she won 19 out of her 27 races, took several second places, and 6.th place (once only) is her worst achievemnts in this unbelievable series.

Her results do not classify her among the best athletes so far, but many of her wins at middle and long distance races prove that she's on her way to the top - not only in our country but internationally too. If only she had all the possibilities other competitors do!

Darja plans to improve her running and her results with one solely goal in her mind - to compete at the Olympics! She would like to compete as a marathon runner and she hopes this could happen at the Olympic Games 2004, when she'll be 27 y. o. So far this seem to be her dream only, since she still rehearses all by herself, with no coach and no appropriate support, but whenever Darja promises to do something, she does it! And she will keep her promises regarding her competing at the Olympics as well! She is to be trusted.

She is improving from race to race although her top achievement she dreams of still seem to be far away for now. If a good coach and better conditions were offered her, she could improve even quicker - and she's well aware of that. But she will never again want to become a victim of "experts" and conditions like the ones she had in her first athletic club. She will rather choose to go on her own way and by herself and she will succeed! She knows very well what she wants and what she can do!

She feels she capable of competing at marathon races but she plans to test herself at 21 km first. Meanwhile she intends to run many, many races of 5 up to 10 km, while her daily training remains to be between 12 to 16 km.

Her first marathon race is planned to take place in October (probably in Athens, Greece), while her nearest races are to be in Atomske toplice (September, 12.th) and in Moravske toplice (September 25.th). Both races are a part of this years activities under the common name: "Slovenia runs for Health!"

Look for her among the winners!

At the same 15.th Anniversary of Darja's first Athletic Club from Domžale one of the chairmen had said no less "predictive" words, that nowadays are coming true, not for the Club and nor for him - this time for Darja only - and so be it as she deserves it!

Here's what he had said:

"The one that doesn't try the impossible will never succeed!"

Darja has tried ...

Ljubljana, September 21.st 1999

Darja keeps her promises and continues to win convincingly at almost every race. As you can see from the table of her achievements, she took 5.th place in Atomske toplice after having won 11.400 m race at Povir only a day before. She simply didn't have enough time to rest to be capable of winning twice within less than 18 hours.

At her next important competition, the final race of "Slovenia runs for Health" in Moravske toplice, Darja took first place again - this time even more convincingly. Only some of the best out of many men competitors managed to finish the race before her while her direct - female opponents were left far behind.

Darja is thus without any doubt the most successful female athlete of the season among the attendees of "Slovenija teče".

And as if she wanted to prove it again, she took 2.nd places at both her next races in Rogaška slatina and Krašnja, being beaten at the first of the two races by Helena Javornik and by Veronika Bohinc at the second of the mentioned races. Both of them, Helena and Veronika are older and far more experienced than Darja. Their wins, however, were not very convincing, which means Darja is even closer to the time when she'll simply be the best!

Ljubljana, October, 6.th 1999

Not surprisingly at all, nearly the same situation repeated yesterday in a small Austrian town Grafendorf - on her first (but not last) race in Austria this year. Darja again draw the attention of experts by winning convincingly in her category (under 30 years of age), while she took second place all in all. She was left behind by the absolute winner Elisabeth Singer, but by 23 sec. only.

Ljubljana, October, 10.th 1999

Take a closer look at her future plans and races where she intends to compete ...

And you're most kindly invited to return to her pages. There is a good reason for the invitation: Darja is most probably on her way back to international recognition - in august this year she's about to compete at the European Championship of Police Forces.

Ljubljana, March, 9.th. 2000

... to be continued ...

Prepared by: Edo Bogataj © 2000