There he won his first major medal when he produced a leap of 8.04 m to finish in second place, beaten by Soviet competitor Valeriy Podluzhny.

He won the gold medal at the World Student Games at Sofia and again produced many long-jumps over 8 m, winning the Yugoslav Championships with a leap of 8.14 m. Stekic was chosen to represent Europe at the first World Cup held in Düsseldorf, but there he again showed inconsistency when he reached modest 7.79 m to place him 4th.

If he produced it one week earlier, he would be a European champion, but in the long-jump final at the continental Champs in Prague, Stekic managed to jump 8.12 m to earn another silver medal, 6 cm behind the gold medalist, Jaques Rousseau (France).

He competed at similar level in 1979 and produced 4th best long-jump of the year when winning his fifth Balkan title at the Games in Athens.

Stekic also successfully retained his Mediterranean title when winning on home soil at Split in a championship record of 8.21 m. In his preparation for the 1980 Olympic Games at Moscow, Stekic won his only medal (silver) at the European Indoor Championships at Sindelfingen and his sixth and final gold at the Balkan Games at Sofia with his season's best of 8.11 m. Sadly, Stekic injured himself in his very first jump in qualifying round at the Olympics, but continued to compete for a decade after that despite far from the form from the '70s.