Radio România Internațional

Tag: gymnastics

  • Dream duo to coach Romania’s gymnastics team

    Dream duo to coach Romania’s gymnastics team

    After the recent
    disappointing results of the Romanian gymnasts, the coaches with the greatest
    achievements in the history of Romanian sports, Mariana Bitang and Octavian
    Bellu, have agreed to return to the national women’s team. After having
    withdrawn several times from the helm of the team and being appointed state
    advisers for sports in 2006, they suspended their cooperation with the Romanian
    Gymnastics Federation in 2014 for family reasons.




    Their recent
    return occurred after the head of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee,
    Alin Petrache, sent an open letter to the Romanian Gymnastics Federation,
    calling for concrete measures to improve Romania’s results in this sport. The
    letter also requested clarifications regarding the role of Mariana Bitang and
    Octavian Bellu in the 2016 Rio Olympics training and participation programme,
    and recommended, as a last resort, that a foreign coach be hired for the team.
    After talks with both the Gymnastics Federation and the Youth and Sports
    Ministry, Bellu and Bitang have decided to take over themselves. Their
    objective is to have the Romanian team qualified for the forthcoming Olympic
    Games.




    For the first
    time in the last 49 years, the Romanian women’s gymnastics team was not a
    serious contender for a medal in the latest World Championships, and finished
    in a dismal 13th place. Since it failed to secure a place among the
    world’s top 8 teams in Glasgow, Romania missed the chance to qualify
    automatically for the Olympic Games. The only chance now to secure a place in
    Rio is to finish among the top four teams at the Olympic test event due in Rio
    in April. While this may not appear to be an easy task, according to the media,
    Romania still have a good chance, given the vast experience and expertise of
    the team’s new coaches.




    Mariana Bitang
    and Octavian Bellu steered the Romanian women’s gymnastics team through 6
    successive editions of the Olympic Games between 1992 and 2012, winning a total
    22 medals, of which 11 gold, 6 silver and 5 bronze.

  • November 5, 2015

    November 5, 2015

    Romanias President Klaus Iohannis has today announced it appointed Education Minister Sorin Cimpeanu as interim prime minister to replace Victor Ponta who resigned on Wednesday after mass street protests. President Iohannis will hold talks with political parties later today and will nominate a new prime minister later this week, tasked with forming a new government, which needs parliamentary approval. The head of state is today meeting with representatives of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), part of the ruling coalition, of the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) – both in opposition -and of the group of national minorities. Consultations will continue on Friday with the National Union for the Progress of Romania (UNPR) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE), both part of the ruling coalition. President Iohannis has also announced that he will bring “a new actor” to the table, that is a group which represents civil society and the street, to listen to their wishes and opinions.




    133 people, of whom 80 in serious condition, are still in hospital following the fire in the “Colectiv” nightclub, which caused the death of 32 people, authorities have announced. The death toll could rise significantly, doctors have warned, given that the club décor that burnt in the fire gave off extremely noxious gases and the injuries caused are atypical, including burns involving large areas of the skin, lung necrosis and extensive respiratory damage.




    Wednesday evening’s protests in Bucharest and several other Romanian cities, attended by tens of thousands of people, made headlines throughout the world. In spite of prime minister Victor Ponta’s resignation, France Press reports, protesters are asking for a government made up of technocrats, against the background of their lack of confidence in political parties. Reuters reports that protesters believe that the government’s resignation should be the start of a reform of the political class and the public administration, generally seen as corrupt. In its turn, the BBC says that concerns that safety has been compromised by corruption, fuelled people’s anger at the political elite. People are unsatisfied with politicians getting richer and richer while ordinary Romanians are becoming poor and poor, the Liberation writes.




    Romanian gymnast Larisa Iordache won the all-around title at the 32nd edition of the annual “Arthur Gander Memorial” competition on Wednesday in Morges, Switzerland. Iordache, the all-around bronze medallist in Glasgow, competed on vault, balance beam and floor exercise to easily win the title. The Romanian gymnast sailed to victory amassing a 2-point margin over second place Pauline Schäfer of Germany. Another Romanian, Diana Bulimar, came out 3rd. First held in 1984, the annual competition honors the legendary Arthur Gander, the former president of the International Gymnastics Federation.