# Lejla Njemčević

Lejla Njemčević (née Tanović, born 19 June 1994) is an Italian-born Bosnian cross-country and mountain bike cyclist. She was the overall winner of the cross-country marathon at the 2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup. Lejla is as well the first ever mountain bike rider from the Bosnia and Herzegovina to sign a contract for a professional cycling team. Lejla started racing at the age of 15 at local cycling club Klub brdskog biciklizma "Puls" for which team she is still riding. During her career she has won 35 races organised by the Union Cycliste Internationale. Lejla Njemčević is a nineteen time national champion in various disciplines and five time national league overall winner. On regional competitions she has won the Balkan Championships title five time in the row which makes her all time best Balkan rider. Lejla is a graduated student of Faculty of Law in Sarajevo with a master's degree in criminal law.

## Results

Lejla is Bosnia and Herzegovina national champion at: cross-country (XCO), cross-country marathon (XCM), and cross-country eliminator (XCE). During her career Lejla Njemčević has won total of 19 National Championships in all discipline. In the season 2022, she has won the Marathon World Series presented by the UCI, and claim the number 1 place on the UCI Marathon ranking list. In the following year she has won the overall title of the UCI XCM World Cup, and wrote her name in cycling history of the cross country marathon discipline. The result came after she won the opening round of the UCI XCM World Cup in Nove Mesto na Morave in Czech Republic and followed by two second places in Finale Ligure, Italy and Morzine, France. On the final and fourth round of the XCM World Cup in Snowshoe, USA she won 4th place and overall World Cup title with huge point margin over the second place.

## Career

Lejla Njemčević grew up in Sarajevo, while very young she showed passion for sport and cycling. After intense searching for a mountain bike racing club she started training with Amar Njemčević, one of the best cycling and condition coaches in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After a few years of racing in national races, Tanović started her professional and international career in 2013. She signed a professional contract with Turkish cycling team Salcano Cappadocia in 2014. Lejla won three medals on Balkan championship races, in 2014 she was second in Macedonia and also winning second place in Greece in 2015. But in 2016 she won first gold medal in elite category for Bosnia and Herzegovina on Balkan championship in Montenegro. After that victory she became most successful mountain bike rider in history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After season 2015 and 2016 where she was riding for Salcano team from Turkey she signed for SMF Team from Greece for season 2017. In season 2017 Tanović defended her Balkan champion title in Nafpaktos (Greece), this was her second straight time that she won Balkan title in elite category. In 2018, Tanović defended her Balkan championship title at competition held in Romania After her third successful Balkan championship defence, she won her fourth consecutive Balkan championship in 2019 in Serbia. She was #1 on UCI MTB Cross-country ranking.