Last week has been one of stellar
performances for Romanian sports. Whether it was swimming, athletics, table
tennis or water sports, our athletes have grabbed important awards after years
of subpar results. Last week started with David Popovici winning gold in the
200m freestyle event at the European Swimming Championships in Rome. The
defending world champion in this event, Popovici won the race in 1 minute, 47
seconds and 97 hundredths, setting a new world and European record for junior
competitions as well as a new local record. Adding to this medal was the 100m
freestyle gold medal won a couple of days earlier, when David Popovici also
broke the world record.
In athletics, Romania had last won a
gold medal 20 years ago, more specifically in 2002, when Ionela Tîrlea won the
400m hurdle race in Munich. Also in Munich, last Wednesday, Bianca Ghelber won
gold in the hammer throw final at the European Championships, with a throw
measuring 72.72 meters, 60 centimeters above the runner-up Ewa Rozanska of
Poland. At the Tokyo Olympics last year as well as at the World Championships
of July this year, Bianca Ghelber had ranked 6th .
In table tennis, Bernadette Szőcs
won gold in the women’s doulbes jointly with Sofia Polcanova of Australia, an
athlete born in the Republic of Moldova. On Thursday, they defeated the
all-Romanian pair Elizabeta Samara / Andreea Dragoman in the final. Another
athlete from Romania, Adina Diaconu, won bronze jointly with Maria Xiao of
Spain. Let us further note that Szőcs won silver in the mixed doubles with
Ovidiu Ionescu. Bernadette Szőcs had previously won the European gold in
Luxembourg in 2017, and in Nantes in 2019 in the team event.
At the European Multisport Championships
in Munich, Cătălin Chirilă won gold in 1000m single canoe race. Then, on
Sunday, he won bronze in the 500m race. Chirilă thus matched the performance of
Florin Mironcic, who won gold in the 1000m race and silver in the 500m race at
the European Championships in Racice, the Czech Republic. (VP)
