The sporting story of Đenđi Kirti, née Kiš, began in the gymnasium of Miloje Čiplić Elementary School, where gymnastics was very popular. For four years, she was an indispensable member of the school team before taking up handball in the eighth grade with Jedinstvo, which was competing in the Vojvodina Quality League at the time.
However, sporting paths are often unpredictable. Talent scout Laslo Makra invited Đenđi, along with about ten other girls, to the bowling alley. The new bowling centre captivated her with its vibrant colours and irresistible music, the dance of the balls and the crashing of the pins. Like Odysseus' Sirens, those unusual sounds completely enchanted her and decisively influenced the course of her sporting career.
Even her very first encounter with bowling was enough for her to leave gymnastics and handball behind and devote herself entirely to this sport, which at the time in Novi Bečej was almost exclusively reserved for men. What attracted her most was the fact that in bowling, everything depends on the individual competitor. For any athlete, that is a major challenge, and Đenđi recalls that she felt almost magical as the pins came crashing down. Her first coach, Laslo Makra, had a remarkable way of revealing the charms and secrets of the sport to his young players.
The women's club was still in its infancy, while the other members were considerably older than her. Nevertheless, Đenđi successfully matched their results and soon became an indispensable member of the senior team. She made her debut for the first team at just 13 years of age.
The bowling ball seemed to obey her, as she recalls, while the pins fell almost effortlessly. It was as though she were holding a magic wand rather than a ball weighing nearly three kilograms.
Her first major successes came very quickly. The year 1986 was, in her own words, decisive for the rest of her career. At the Yugoslav Junior National Championships, held in Zrenjanin, she won first place with 852 pins knocked down over two appearances. At the time, her country was still called Yugoslavia, and this result earned her a place in the youth national team.
She subsequently competed at the World Championships in Vienna, where she won the European title in the mixed doubles alongside Vladimir Goljanić of Croatia. For the young bowler from Novi Bečej, this marked the beginning of a major international career.
World and European championships followed one another in rapid succession. Germany, Celje and numerous other major competitions brought new experiences and medals. In Celje, the Yugoslav national team won a silver medal, while Đenđi's performances at major international competitions did not go unnoticed.
Soon afterwards, she received a call-up to the senior national team. At the World B Championship in Prague, the Yugoslav team won the silver medal and secured its return to the A group of the world's leading national teams.
The year 1988 was particularly successful. Đenđi Kirti won both the junior and senior individual national titles, confirming that she was no longer merely a promising young athlete, but one of the finest bowlers of her generation.
Yet among all the medals and titles, one competition holds a special place in her memory. It was the European Cup in Skopje in 2000.
That was when her childhood dream came true – to stand on the winners' podium with the trophy in her hands, while the national flag waved and the national anthem played. The emotions were so overwhelming that she could not hold back her tears. Even many years later, whenever she recalls that moment, the feeling remains just as strong.
Throughout her career, she won two national championship titles, a gold medal at the European Cup, a silver medal at the NBC Cup with Vojvodina of Novi Sad, junior and senior national titles, as well as countless other medals. Looking back, it could be said that she won almost everything that could be won.
But Đenđi Kirti's sporting story did not end with medals and titles. It gained another, deeply personal dimension when, in the season in which the club celebrated its 30th anniversary, she played on the same team as her daughter Tinda.
Tinda, just like her mother, made her debut at the age of 13.
In this way, Đenđi gained a successor, and some might have said that it was the right moment to retire. She, however, did not see it that way. Even today, she believes she still has much to give to bowling.
She often recalls a competition in which one of her opponents was a woman more than seventy years old. If she could still compete at that age, Đenđi believes, then her own limits are still far away.
“It's achievable, isn't it?”
That question, asked with a smile, perhaps best describes her relationship with bowling. For her, age is not a limit but merely a number, while love for the sport cannot be measured by medals or by the number of years spent on the bowling lanes.
Much can be written about the titles, medals and records. Yet behind them all lies something far more important – a love of sport that has lasted for decades and has become part of the history of bowling in Novi Bečej.
Đenđi Kirti – one of Novi Bečej's greatest athletes and, with good reason, the Queen of the Bowling Lanes.
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