YouTube screen grab from a local television report on the funeral of Nemanja Nešić on 8 June 2012.
Nemanja Nešić rowed on Wednesday, 6 June in a lightweight double scull with partner Miloš Stanojević (Милош Станојевић), accompanied in a motorboat by coach Dejan Guslov (Дејан Гуслов). The Secretary-General of the Serbian Rowing Federation, Nebojša Jevremović (Небојша Јевремовић) described the tragedy as follows: “Nemanja got sick during the training. The fellow-rower from the boat hurried to help him and so did the coach. (…) They immediately took him off the boat and went to the shore where an ambulance was waiting. But, unfortunately, he had already been dead.” The ambulance team tried to resuscitate Nešić but in vain, Serbia’s rowing head told the media on 6 June.
Speaking about the regular medical testing, Jevremović said: “Nothing showed that a tragedy might happen. Nemanja had been a member of the national team for eight years, and, just as other team members, he would undergo a medical check twice a year. Last time he went for the check five months ago and the results simply did not indicate any problem.”
The chairman of the Serbian Olympic Committee, Vlade Divac (Владе Дивац) told the Serbian media on 7 June that Nešić was even scheduled for a regular medical check on that date, one day before which he had passed away. In Divac’s words, “Nemanja Nešić passed the last medical check in November and also in the meantime underwent common medical testing for athletes. Today, on Thursday, he was about to go for another check.”
An online version of Serbia’s Sportski Žurnal (Спортски Журнал) newspaper wrote on 7 June that international anti-doping commissioners visited Nešić in Smederevo some ten days before his sudden death and the doping test was negative.
