Radio România Internațional

Tag: medals

  • European gold for Romanian athletics

    European gold for Romanian athletics

     

    Every two years in early spring, European athletics begins its competition season with the continental indoor championships. This is where we get a first glimpse at the new talents emerging internationally and the prospects for the forthcoming season.

     

    And the results of the recently concluded European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, in the Netherlands, were surprisingly pleasurable for Romanian athletics fans. Romania finished the competition with 2 medals: gold for Andrei Rareş Toader in the men’s shot put competition, and silver for Diana Ion in the women’s triple jump.

     

    It was the best Romanian record in a continental indoor athletics competition in recent years. After 8 years without medals, since the 2015 edition, the Romanians only reached the podium again in 2023 in Istanbul, where Claudia Bobocea won silver in the 1500 meters, and Gabriel Bitan won the bronze in the long jump.

     

    But Romania had not won a European title at an indoor championship for 20 years, more precisely since the one won by Elena Buhăianu in the women’s 1500 meters, in 2005 in Madrid.

     

    Before the start of this year’s competition, Romanian coaches had been moderately hopeful. The target set by the athletics federation in Bucharest was a 4th to 6th place and two qualifications in the finals. In an interview with Agerpres news agency, the coach of the national team Oana Pantelimon highlighted the chances of Andrei Rareş Toader, who had had an excellent start of the season. On Sunday, he met all expectations.

     

    He qualified for the shot put finals in 4th place, with a 20.59m throw. In the final, however, he managed 21.27 m, a whole 23 centimetres better than the contender Wictor Petersson (Sweden). Moreover, this was a new national record for Romania.

     

    The first medal of the Romanian team in Apeldoorn, the silver in the triple jump, had been won on Friday by Diana Ana Maria Ion. With 14.31 m, she achieved the most important performance of her career so far. The gold went to the Spanish athlete Ana Peleteiro-Compaore, who jumped six centimetres higher than Diana. The bronze medal went to the Finnish Senni Salminen, with 13.99 m.

     

    Next up is the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, which will take place from March 21 to 23. The competition was originally scheduled to take place in 2020, but due to the pandemic, it was postponed for three years in a row and it has been rescheduled for this year. (AMP)

  • Another edition of the Olympic Games end in Paris

    Another edition of the Olympic Games end in Paris

    A small torch carried on Sunday by the phenomenal French swimmer Leon Marchand – the only athlete to have won four gold medals at the Olympics in Paris – marked the end of the 33rd edition of the Olympic Games.

    Romania ended this edition of the prestigious competition with 9 medals, of which, three gold, four silver and two bronze. Romania’s gold medalists were swimmer David Popovici, in the 200 meters freestyle race, Andrei Cornea and Marian Enache in the men’s double race and the Romania’s women eight made up of Maria Magdalena Rusu, Roxana Anghel, Ancuta Bodnar, Maria Lehaci, Adriana Adam, Amalia Beres, Ioana Vrinceanu, Simona Radis and Victoria Stefania Petreanu. Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis walked away with silver from the women’s double scull event and so did Ioana Vrinceanu and Roxana Anghel in the women’s pair. Gianina van Groningen and Ionela Cozmiuc also became silver medalists in the light-weight women’s double scull and so did weightlifter Mihaela Cambei in the 49 kilogram category.

    David Popovici with bronze in the 100 meter freestyle race and gymnast Ana Barbosu stepped onto the podium’s third step.

    Romania had a better presence in Paris than in Tokyo 2021 and Rio 2016, where its athletes got only four medals. And they fared better than in London Olympics, from where they walked away with only 7 medals.

    However, the number of medals won in Paris is significantly lower when compared to Sidney 2000, when our athletes reaped no less than 26 medals.

    Romania went 23rd out of the 206 participants in the medal ranking in Paris. The United States topped the table with 40 gold, 44 silver and 42 bronze medals, followed by China with 40 gold, 27 silver and 24 bronze. Japan went third with 20 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze.

    The host country, France, ranked fifth with 16 gold medals, 26 silver and 22 bronze.

    The closing ceremony was attended by 80 thousand people who came to celebrate sports and their winners. Bearing the medals they won, athletes were allowed to enter the stadium without being imposed any alphabetical order as two weeks ago in the opening ceremony.

    An original grandiose show of light and colour with artists wearing SF costumes was staged during the closing ceremony, which also included fireworks.

    Roughly 300 dancers, actors and musicians put up a show in which extraterrestrials coming from outer space were restoring the Olympic Games and rebuilding the Olympic Circles.

    During the aforementioned ceremony, the Olympic Flag was handed over to the next host country, the USA, and a 15-minute Hollywood performance came to complete the show.

    Upon a spectacular jump over the stadium, the US film star Tom Cruise has been assigned another ‘mission impossible’, namely to carry the Olympic flag to Los Angeles.

     

    (bill)

  • THE WEEK IN REVIEW

    THE WEEK IN REVIEW

    OG 2024 – Romanian performance

    By Friday, August 2, during the first week of the Olympic Games in Paris, Romanian athletes won 6 medals – 2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze. At the age of 19, swimmer David Popovici won the final of the 200-meter freestyle event, then won bronze in the 100-meter freestyle final. And rowing provided real moments of joy. Andrei Cornea and Marian Enache won the gold medals in men’s double rowing. Ancuța Bodnar and Simona Radiş also had a heroic race, ending with silver medals in women’s double rowing. Ioana Vrînceanu and Roxana Anghel won the silver in the women’s double sculls, and Gianina van Groningen and Ionela Cozmiuc – also the silver – in the women’s double sculls, light category. We remind you that Romania’s team at the Olympic Games in the French capital, which will end on August 11, consists of 106 athletes competing in 18 sports disciplines.

    New Romanian sites on the UNESCO Heritage List

    The Monumental Ensemble ‘Way of Heroes’, made by Constantin Brâncuşi in Târgu Jiu, a city from his native region in the southwest of Romania, as well as the Borders of the Roman Empire – Dacia, were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The decision was taken by the World Heritage Committee during its 46th session, held in India. The “Way of Heroes” is a sculptural ensemble erected between 1937 and 1938, consisting of the Endless Column, dedicated to the Romanian heroes who fell in the First World War in the region, the Kissing Gate, and the Table of Silence, surrounded by 12 round chairs, completed by 30 chairs with a square headboard, all placed directly on the ground, as a natural plinth. The ensemble represents a turning point in the history of modern art, especially monumental sculpture and public art. As for the Frontiers of the Roman Empire – Dacia, this represents the most complex nomination for the World Heritage List prepared by Romania so far. The case file lists 285 elements scattered along more than 1,000 kilometers, in 16 counties of Romania. Romania has 9 more objectives included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

    Sex scandal in the Romanian university environment

    The Ministry of Education in Bucharest has asked for investigations to be made in universities regarding the cases of sexual harassment that have been in the headlines of the Romanian news for several days. The National Council of Rectors will make a Guide of good practices regarding behavior in the university environment . The measures were announced after several female students declared, in the public space, that they were sexually abused by their teachers, and that their behavior was known among the professional entourage of the respective teaching staff, but that no one took any action. Three names are heavily circulated – sociologists Alfred Bulai and Marius Pieleanu, both from the National School of Political and Administrative Studies (SNSPA), as well as professor Dorin Ştefan Adam from the University of Architecture in the Capital. Alfred Bulai denies the accusations, but submitted his request for retirement. SNSPA suspended him from the position of director of the Department of Sociology, he will no longer teach during the internal investigation by the Faculty’s Ethics Commission, and he has a criminal record for using his position for sexual purposes. Meanwhile, dozens of people sent emails to the Prosecutor’s Office about his behavior. Marius Pieleanu was accused of sexual harassment by Ana Birchall herself, former Minister of Justice, but the Public Prosecutor’s Office says that it has not received any notification in this case. In the end, Dorin Ştefan Adam asked to be suspended from teaching work at the School of Architecture, after female students claimed that he was sending them indecent messages and naked pictures of himself. On the other hand, the Control Corps of the Ministry of Culture will go to the National Art Museum of Romania, after receiving memos, including about actions that can be interpreted as sexual harassment. In Thursday’s Government meeting, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu emphasized that such situations cannot be tolerated, regardless of the name of the aggressor. The Minister of Education, Ligia Deca, spoke about possible measures being considered – among them, one that provides that reports be sent directly to prosecutors, even if they are anonymous. And the Minister of the Family, Natalia Intotero, urged all those who feel that there is pressure on them or harassment to not wait, and to notify the authorities immediately.

    Romanian firefighters on duty in Greece

    The requests from abroad addressed to Romanian firefighters are proof that the civil defense system works – declared the Minister of the Interior, Cătălin Predoiu, on the occasion of the departure of a contingent of rescue workers to Greece. They have proven their ability to save lives, to protect communities, in the country and abroad – the official recalled. The current mission of the Romanian firefighters is carried out within the framework of the European Mechanism for Civil Protection, with European funding. A first contingent of 40 firefighters, accompanied by 8 technical devices, went to Greece to help the Greek authorities manage the situations caused by the fires. They will be replaced, after a few weeks, by two other batches of rescuers. The Romanian firefighters are requested for the 4th time in a row to send contingents to Greece.

  • July 31, 2024

    July 31, 2024

    OLYMPICS – Romanian athletes are competing on Wednesday, at the Olympic Games in Paris, in rowing, swimming, judo, table tennis, archery and triathlon. Japan remains in the top position in the medal standings at the Paris Olympics after Tuesday’s races, the fourth official day of competition, while Romania is 16th after the gold won by swimmer David Popovici in the 200m freestyle race on Monday. On Tuesday, David Popovici also qualified to the semifinals of the 100 m freestyle event. The final is taking place today. The Romanian artistic gymnastics team competed in the women’s team finals and finished in 7th place, 12 years after their previous participation, at the London Olympics, when they took the bronze medal. Romanian rowers Ancuța Bodnar and Simona Radiş, the Olympic champions in women’s double rowing, qualified, on Tuesday, to Final A. At the same time, Romanian rowers Florin Arteni and Florin Lehaci qualified to the final in men’s double sculls, after winning the first semi-final.

     

    FIRES – 40 Romanian firefighters with 8 technical means left for Greece on Tuesday, where several wildfires are active. The mission lasts until September 15, the purpose of the program being to reduce the response time in the event of forest fires and improve interoperability between the participating forces. The head of the Romanian Department for Emergencies, Raed Arafat told the firefighters that, although they are going on a support mission, the situation is difficult in Greece and, most likely, they will participate in the interventions. The mission of the Romanian firefighters is part of the assistance program financed by the EU, provided as a measure of support for the Greek communities, after the devastating fires recorded in the past years.

     

    TAROM – TAROM flights to and from Beirut have been suspended on Wednesday and Thursday, amid the growing tensions in the Middle East and following the alert issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest to avoid any travel to this region, the national air operator announced. Other European countries have also suspended their flights on the Beirut route. Several countries, including Romania, Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands, have urged their citizens to leave Lebanon urgently, due to growing concerns about a possible large-scale retaliation by Israel, after Saturday’s rocket attack that killed 12 young people on the Golan Heights and for which the Lebanese group Hezbollah is accused. The Israeli army said it carried out a targeted strike in the area of ​​the Lebanese capital against the Hezbollah command on Tuesday evening.

     

    FRAUD – The European Public Prosecutor’s Office alerted Romania regarding several cases of fraud, including one with a possible damage of 4.3 million euros, involving a mafia group from Italy. The institution led by the Romanian Laura Codruţa Kovesi informed the Ministry of Investments and European Projects in Bucharest that there are possible systemic vulnerabilities in contracts with European funds in the country. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has signaled a high risk of fraud with letters of guarantee issued by fictitious entities or which did not have the right to issue such documents. According to a press release by the European institution, based on these false documents, several public tenders were won and then ended up being investigated.

     

    HAMAS – The Palestinian group Hamas said that its leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran, in an Israeli raid on his residence in the capital Tehran. The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the “coward assassination” of the political leader of Hamas. Turkey also condemned the assassination of Ismail Hanyeh, a close associate of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Nasser Kanaani, said that the blood of the assassinated Hamas leader will not be wasted. We remind you that the war in the Gaza Strip broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas committed an attack in southern Israel that led to the death of nearly 1,200 people, most of them civilians. Another 250 people were kidnapped then. In response, Israel promised to destroy Hamas, in power since 2007 in the Palestinian territory, which it sees as a terrorist organization, a position shared by the US and the EU. (EE)

     

  • Romania at the Olympic Games – Los Angeles 1984

    Romania at the Olympic Games – Los Angeles 1984

     

    Romania was in the Olympics elites for many years. Between 1976 and 1988, more to the point in the Olympic Games in Montreal and Seoul, the Romanian delegation was among the top ten teams in the world in terms of medals. The best games in terms of medals, though, were those in Los Angeles in 1984, in which Romania came in second in terms of medals, namely 53, of which 20 gold, 16 silver, and 17 bronze, right behind the top team, the United States.

     

     

    The 1984 Olympic Games were boycotted by several countries from the Communist bloc. The Soviet Union announced its decision to opt out of the games on May 8, 1984, followed by Bulgaria and East Germany on May 10, then by almost all satellite states. Romania was the only country in the Soviet sphere of influence to refuse the boycott. As a result, the Romanian athletes gained a lot of sympathy among the sports fans attending the games.

     

     

    Without a doubt, the number one athlete in the Romanian delegation in Los Angeles was gymnast Ecaterina Szabo. She won four gold and one bronze medal. Since the Soviet athletes were not present, she was considered already a favorite in the competition. She missed winning the top Olympic title, though, because she took a fall in the beam event. She got her groove back at the finals winning three gold in the vault event, the floor event, and the beam event. In the last event, she tied with another Romanian gymnast, Simona Pauca. At the same time, her contribution was decisive to Romania’s victory.

     

     

    Another discipline where Romania shined was rowing. With 6 gold and two silver medals, the Romanian team dominated the competition. It was the edition in which Elisabeta Lipa, one of the world’s greatest rowers, won her first Olympic gold medal, next to Marioara Popescu. Lipa went on to win four more gold medals in future editions.

     

     

    Romanian athletics had its best results ever in Los Angeles. Thanks to the three gold medals won by Maricica Puica in the 3,000 m event, by Doina Melinte in the 800 m event, and by Anisoara Cusmir in the long jump event, Romania came in fourth in the world.

     

     

    Let us also take note of the fact that Los Angeles 1984 is the last edition attended by Ivan Patzaichin, the greatest Romanian canoeist in history. Next to Toma Simionov, he came in first in the double canoe, 1000 m event. Along his career, Patzaichin won 4 gold Olympic medals, in the 5 editions he took part in, between 1968 and 1984. (tr. C. Cotoiu)

     

  • Romania at the Olympic Games

    Romania at the Olympic Games

     

    The first participation of our gymnasts in an Olympic contest was in Berlin in 1936 but they started winning medals only 20 years later. Elena Leustean became a bronze medallist in the floor event in Melbourne, where the Romanian team also finished in the third position. Another bronze in Rome in 1960 was followed by a 16-year break.

     

    Then Nadia Comaneci managed a perfect 10, making the three-digit scoreboard in Montreal obsolete. Nadia has won five Olympic gold medals, three of them in Montreal, in the individual all-round, beam and uneven bars event. Ecaterina Szabo comes next with four Olympic titles all of them in Los Angeles in 1984. Three Olympic gold medals have been won by Daniela Silivas, Simona Amanar and Catalina Ponor. Silivas compelled recognition in Seoul in 1988 when she won the uneven bars, beam and floor events.

     

    Amanar won the vault event in Atlanta in 1996 and the all round event and the team contest in Sydney 2000. Ponor won the Olympic titles in the beam, floor and teams contests in Athens, in 2004. In the men’s competitions, Romania had only one Olympic champion, Marius Urzica who won the pommel horse event in Sydney.

     

    When it comes to the best Olympic performances, Romanian rowers come right after the gymnasts, with 38 medals, half of them gold. Romania’s first participation in an Olympic competition was in Helsinki, in 1952, with the first medal won in Munich in 1972 by Petre Ceapura, Ladislau Lovrenschi and Stefan Tudor, the bronze medallists in the men’s coxed pairs.

     

    The women’s contests were introduced for the first time in Montreal in 1976 and Romania’s coxed quadruple scull stepped onto the podium’s third step. At the following edition, in Moscow in 1980, Sanda Toma won the gold for Romania in the single scull race. Women rowers from Romania dominated the competitions from 1984 to 2004, winning 17 gold medals, most of them in the Los Angeles Olympics.

     

    In 1984, Romanian rowers won five Olympic titles in the women’s competitions and one in the men’s contests. Georgeta Andrunache and Viorica Susanu brought home the last Olympic gold for Romania in the women’s pairs of the Beijing Olympics, while the Romanian eight won the bronze in the 2016 Games in Rio.

     

    Next in terms of Olympic medals won for Romania are the athletes, with 35 medals, kayak-canoeists with 34, and wrestlers with 33 medals. Iolanda Balas is the only Romanian athlete with two gold medals in the Olympic Games, in 1960 in Rome and 1964 in Tokyo. Ivan Patzaichin reaped four gold medals and three silver in the kayak-canoe races. He and Serghei Covaliov compelled recognition in the 1000 meter race of Mexico Olympics in 1968, in Moscow 1980 and in Los Angeles four years later together with Toma Simionov. Patzaichin also won the 1000 meter single race in Munich in 1972.

     

    Gheorghe Berceanu and Stefan Rusu also made Romanians proud in Olympic wrestling competitions. Berceanu won the gold in Munich and silver four years later in Montreal, while Rusu became a silver medallist in Montreal and a gold medallist at the Olympics in Moscow. (bill)

  • Romania at the Olympic Games

    Romania at the Olympic Games

     

    Romania was in the Olympics elites for many years. Between 1976 and 1988, more to the point in the Olympic Games in Montreal and Seoul, the Romanian delegation was among the top ten teams in the world in terms of medals. The best games in terms of medals, though, were those in Los Angeles in 1984, in which Romania came in second by number of medals, namely 53, of which 20 gold, 16 silver, and 17 bronze, right behind the top team, the United States.

     

    The 1984 Olympic Games were boycotted by several countries from the Communist bloc. The Soviet Union announced its decision to opt out of the games on May 8, 1984, followed by Bulgaria and East Germany on May 10, then by almost all satellite states. Romania was the only country in the Soviet sphere of influence to refuse the boycott. As a result, the Romanian athletes gained a lot of sympathy among the sports fans attending the Games.

     

    Without a doubt, the number one athlete in the Romanian delegation in Los Angeles was the gymnast Ecaterina Szabo. She won four gold and one bronze medal. Since no Soviet athletes were present, she was considered already a favourite in the competition. She missed winning the top Olympic title, though, because she took a fall in the beam event. She got her groove back at the finals winning three gold medals in the vault, floor, and beam events. In the last event, she tied with another Romanian gymnast, Simona Pauca. At the same time, her contribution was decisive to Romania’s victory.

     

    Another discipline where Romania shined was rowing. With 6 gold and 2 silver medals, the Romanian team dominated the competition. It was the edition in which Elisabeta Lipa, one of the world’s greatest rowers, won her first Olympic gold medal, next to Marioara Popescu. Lipa went on to win four more gold medals in future editions.

     

    Romanian athletics also had its best results ever in Los Angeles. Thanks to the three gold medals won by Maricica Puica in the 3,000 m race, by Doina Melinte in the 800 m race, and by Anisoara Cusmir in the long jump event, Romania came in fourth in the world.

     

    We should also note that Los Angeles 1984 is the last edition attended by Ivan Patzaichin, the greatest Romanian canoeist in history. Next to Toma Simionov, he came in first in the 1000 m double canoe event. In his career, Patzaichin won 4 gold Olympic medals, in the 5 editions he took part in, between 1968 and 1984. (C. Cotoiu)

  • July 9, 2023 UPDATE

    July 9, 2023 UPDATE

    DIICOT The situation in several old people’s homes close to
    Bucharest, where prosecutors had identified organized crime groups who were
    exploiting and mistreating old and disabled people was being analyzed by the
    Romanian government on Sunday. The country’s Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu,
    has summoned several ministers and officials in the field and has announced
    that inspections are to be carried out in all the foster centers for children,
    the elderly and disabled people across the country. The Prime Minister has
    asked for ‘zero tolerance for the crime groups who robbed those helpless
    people’ and has announced that jointly with the Minister of Justice he set the
    solution to this issue as a top priority. ‘What was happening in these ‘centers
    of horror’ have shown us the total dehumanization of some persons that I cannot
    call people.’ No resignations or dismissals have been announced. According to
    DIICOT prosecutors, besides the poor conditions offered, the victims were
    forced to do the most humiliating works. At the same time the abusers used to
    be announced beforehand by their accomplices in various state institutions
    about the upcoming inspections, allowing them to keep the abuses secret.
    According to DIICOT sources, in two years the crime ring under investigation
    managed to siphon off roughly 740 thousand Euros from several social assistance
    directions in Ilfov and Bucharest. Some of those involved have been placed in
    temporary custody for 30 days, whereas others are under house arrest or judicial
    control.






    SUMMIT Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis will be participating in
    the NATO summit in Vilnius on Tuesday and Wednesday, the presidential
    administration in Bucharest has announced. The summit is to include three
    high-level meetings of the North-Atlantic Council, in formats, which also
    include Ukraine, the European Union as well as NATO’s Indo-Pacific partners. At
    the summit, the Romanian president is expected to underline the fundamental
    importance of continuing the implementation of the Madrid decisions on
    strengthening the allied defence and deterrence posture on the Eastern Flank.
    Iohannis will also reiterate the robust support for Ukraine, including its
    NATO’s accession, as well as for the most vulnerable partners, especially for
    the Republic of Moldova. According to the same sources, the head of the
    Romanian state will be also referring to the need for having the importance of
    the Black Sea region in the Euro-Atlantic security reflected in the allied
    documents and decisions. In Vilnius, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is
    expecting that most allies announce their commitment to increasing defence
    budgets to over 2% of the GDP starting next year. He said in Brussles that 11
    member countries, Romania included, had already fulfilled this commitment.








    FAIR The Gaudeamus Radio Romania Book Fair ended in Brasov,
    southern Romania on Sunday. During the five-day event, the almost 40 exhibitors
    put on displays thousands of books for all tastes and ages, music, educational
    games and self-development books. The event also included book launches,
    conferences and debates attended by local writers and not only by them. Adrian
    Lesenciuc, poet, prose and essay-writer as well as literary critic was the
    honorary president of the present edition.








    POLICE Romanian policemen last week enforced 19 European arrest
    warrants and 589 people, who are the subject of alerts in the Schengen
    Information System, have been located on Romania’s territory. According to a
    Romanian police communiqué, 30 documents and 45 vehicles sought by the Schengen
    partners have been seized in Romania to be used as evidence within legal
    procedures. At the same time, 199 people wanted by the Romanian authorities
    have been identified by foreign partners on their territory, the communiqué also
    says.






    MEDALS Romania won six medals on Sunday in the World Rowing Cup III
    in Lucerne, Switzerland: two gold, three silver and one bronze. In the medal
    ranking, Romania came third after Britain and the Netherlands. The Romanian
    women’s four and double scull became gold medalists in Lucerne.




    (bill)

  • May 28, 2023 UPDATE

    May 28, 2023 UPDATE

    MEDALS Romanian rowers walked away with six medals, five gold and
    one silver, from the European Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia. So our
    eight, double scull, pair-oared boat and lightweight single skiff won gold in
    the women’s competition on Sunday. A day before the Romanian women’s four came
    first in the race while our men’s eight became silver medalist. Romania lined
    up 11 crews at the aforementioned competition and came second in the medal
    ranking after Britain. We recall that rowers from Romania had walked away with
    five gold and three silver medals from the previous edition of this prestigious
    European contest held in Munich.








    STRIKE Teachers in Romania are likely to carry on
    their all-out strike into this week as well and they blame the government for its
    failure to come up with a viable solution to the crisis. Trade unions have
    called on the government to bring a new amendment to the pay law, allowing
    beginner teachers to get the average gross salary in the economy. They are also
    asking for a 25% pay rise until the salary law comes into effect. The spokesman
    for the government, Dan Carbunaru, has announced the government’s offer remains
    the same, a bonus of 25 hundred lei in two installments, in the months of June
    and October to benefit around 220 thousand teachers.








    DAY The Day of the Romanians all over the
    world is a special moment and it has a major emotional, spiritual and cultural
    dimension, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis says in the message conveyed on
    this occasion on Sunday. According to him, Romania has a large Diaspora, which
    could represent the force capable of promoting the Romanian values and
    spirituality in a continuously changing Europe. The Day of the Romanians all
    over the world is celebrated in the last Sunday of the month of May in order to
    acknowledge the importance the state attaches to the communities of Romanians
    living outside the country’s borders. In Italy this day has been marked through
    a series of theatre shows. A team of professors and students from the
    University of Theatre and Film in Bucharest has kicked off a project entitled,
    ‘A Caravan for the Romanians all over the world’, which has already had its
    first shows in Rome and is going to give more performances in Lazio, Turin,
    Padua and Venice. In Bucharest, over 300 Romanians from the historical
    communities and from abroad have attended a three-day event entitled
    ‘Here-There’ unfolding under the auspices of the Romanian president.
    ‘Here-There’ comprised a series of events staged by the Department for the
    Romanians All Over the World jointly with the Fine Artists Union in Romania and
    has brought together artists from Romania and abroad from various fields, like
    art, design, music and literature.










    HOLIDAY Catholic believers in Romania on Sunday celebrated
    Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and the other
    followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. This holiday, which completes the Easter
    cycle – the Resurrection, the Ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit – is
    a major Christian event always celebrated on Sundays, fifty days after Easter.
    On Saturday, hundreds of thousands believers, including the president of
    Hungary Novak Katalin, participated in the great pilgrimage on Catholic
    Pentecost in Sumuleu Ciuc, central Romania. The event there brought together
    Catholics from all over the world, most of them Hungarian-speaking believers,
    including from countries like Australia and the United States. The pilgrimage
    in Sumuleu Ciuc boasts a history of 450 years and has at its center the
    miracle-working statue of Virgin Mary in the Franciscan Church there. Legend
    has it that around the year 1567, the Transylvanian Prince John Sigismund would
    have tried to impose Unitarianism to the Roman-Catholic believers who managed
    to keep their faith with the help of the aforementioned statue. Hundreds of
    gendarmes, policemen and firefighters have been deployed for the good
    functioning of the pilgrimage, while the local authorities have imposed traffic
    restrictions.




    (bill)

  • September 4, 2022 UPDATE

    September 4, 2022 UPDATE

    School — Almost 3 million Romanian pupils and preschoolers will start school on Monday. Many changes mark the new school year. It will be structured into 5 modules, separated by 5 holidays. Mandatory tests are eliminated and the average mark obtained at the end of the secondary school is eliminated from the calculation of the admission-to-high-school average mark. Starting this year, end-of-module assessments are no longer mandatory, there will be only one average mark for each subject, and at the end of the year students can no longer be expelled. The Education Minister Sorin Cîmpeanu admitted that one of the problems of Romanian schools is the lack of fire safety certificates for many of them. Moreover, more than half of the educational units in the country, about 57%, do not have security services at the beginning of the school year.



    Berlin — The German government, currently faced with a cost-of-living crisis that many families cannot cope with, on Sunday announced a support package worth 65 billion Euros, DPA reports. The measures include a new, cheaper public transport ticket, a one-off sum of 300 and 200 Euros respectively for pensioners and students to pay the energy bill, an increase in allowances for the elderly or those unable to work, and an increase of 18 Euros in the child allowance. An amount of 300 Euros, also for the payment of energy bills, had already been agreed upon for working people. Moreover, the government will introduce lower tariffs for a certain basic ceiling of energy consumption, above which the price will increase. According to the head of the Bundesbank, the German central bank, the inflation rate, which reached 7.9% in August, is likely to reach 10% by the end of the year, a first since the 1950s. Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Scholz government has already unlocked two aid packages for families, totaling around 30 billion Euros.



    Rowing — Romania won 9 medals, 5 gold and 4 silver, on Sunday, at the Under-23 European Rowing Championships in Belgium, in 11 finals. The Romanian athletes also obtained two fifth places. Romania participated with 12 crews and 38 athletes at the Under-23 European Championships in Belgium. Recently, at the European Rowing Championships, Romanian athletes won no less than 8 medals, 5 gold and 3 bronze, this being the biggest achievement obtained by Romanian rowers at an edition of the Continental Championships.



    Competition — The “George Enescu” International Competition started on Sunday with the concert of the “George Enescu” Philharmonic, conducted by Ainars Rubikis and of soloists who won the 2020-2021 edition, at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest. The event, which this year takes place under the motto Music of Hope, marks 64 years since the first edition, opened on September 4, 1958. This year, 34 young musicians from all over the world qualified for the semifinals of the competition, in the sections Cello, Violin and Piano. 22 orchestral and chamber works will enter the competition in the Composition Section, where an Originality Award will also be granted. The winning works will be announced on September 18.



    Ukraine — The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that he had asked the EU to urgently allocate the next tranche of aid for his country and pressed for a new set of sanctions against Russia, during a telephone conversation with the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Reuters reports. Zelenski, who warned Europeans to expect a tough winter due to the cuts in Russian oil and gas exports, also said he and Von Der Leyen coordinated their measures to limit Russias surplus profits from oil and gas sales. Earlier, the Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmihal said that Kyiv expected to receive a five billion Euro installment from the EU next week, in the form of macro-financial aid. (LS)

  • August 21, 2022

    August 21, 2022

    BANK According to Central Bank forecasts the annual
    inflation rate in Romania will slightly go down only in the last quarter of the
    year. The bank says the annual inflation rate ceased to rise in June and is
    expected to fluctuate for a while then to slightly go down for the next three
    quarters. Inflation has been forecast to stay around 13.9% in December exceeding
    the initial predictions of 12.5%. According to the Central Bank, inflationist
    pressures are to be seriously felt in April next year, after schemes aimed at capping
    electricity prices will have ended. In an attempt to keep inflation at bay, the
    bank decided to raise the key interest rate from 4.47% to 5.5%.










    HOLIDAY Seaside resorts on the Romanian Black Sea
    coast are functioning at full capacity these days in spite of the high accommodation
    prices. Prices are expected to go down next week under a yearly programme
    entitled ‘Seaside for everyone’ due to kick off on August 28th.
    According to representatives of the Employers Association in the Romanian
    tourism, roughly 100 hotels are getting ready to accommodate tourists for
    prices 75% lower than at the peak of the season.










    MEDALS Romanian athlete Catalin Chirila won bronze
    in the 500 meter race at the Canoe Sprint European Championships in Munich. A
    world’s vice-champion in Halifax, Canada, Chirila also reaped gold in the 1000 meter
    single canoe race in Munich. Another two athletes from Romania, Constantin
    Popovici and Catalin Preda walked away with gold and silver from the high diving
    event of the European Aquatics Championships held in Rome. Popovici made
    history as the first European champion in this event with 455.70 points. Preda,
    who took the lead after the first three rounds, eventually ended second with
    436.20 points. Italian Alessandro De Rose came third in the aforementioned
    event. Constantin’s namesake David claimed two European titles and a world
    record in the pool and has been designated the best athlete in the men’s events
    at the present edition of the Aquatics in Rome.


    VOLLEYBALL Romania’s national men’s volleyball side
    have qualified for the European Championships due next year after a 3-0 win
    against Albania in their last away game in the preliminary group G. Romania
    ranks first in the group with 5 wins and 15 points followed by Switzerland with
    12 points, Bosnia-Herzegovina 4 points and Albania with two. The seven winning
    sides of the preliminaries as well as the best five runner-ups are qualified
    for the final tournament. Romania won a European title in 1963, two silver
    medals in 1955 and 1958 and two bronze in 1971 and 1977. At the 2019 edition of
    the European Championship our side ranked 21st.








    DIPLOMACY According to the spokeswoman for the
    Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, Russia will have a proper response
    to Bucharest’s decision to declare persona non grata an employee of its embassy
    in Romania. Zakharova says that Romania has declared the Russian employee
    persona non grata ‘without any reason and under exaggerated pretexts’. The
    Romanian Foreign Ministry says that a decision to expel the Russian employee
    has been made because the person was involved in activities incompatible with
    the Vienna Convention of 1961 concerning diplomatic relations, a generic
    definition for espionage allegations.




    (bill)

  • Sports Weekend

    Sports Weekend

    Romania’s national rugby side have qualified for the World
    Cup 2023 in France. The oaks’ way towards the prestigious rugby competition has
    been smoothed out by the elimination of Spain, which used an illegible player
    in two matches within the Rugby Europe Championship 2021-2022. Initially,
    following the results in the aforementioned European competition, Romania had
    to join the play-offs. But now Portugal and the side ranking after Romania will
    go into the play-offs. In France, Romania will be part of Group B together with
    defending champions South Africa, Ireland, Scotland and the first side ranking
    in the Asia/Pacific zone.




    Romanian tennis player Simona Halep secured a 6-2, 6-3 win
    against Shuai Zhang, of China on Thursday in the first round of the WTA 1000 tournament
    hosted by Madrid, which has more than 6 million euros in prize money. Also in
    the first round, Sorana Cîrstea of Romania has conceded defeat to Spanish
    player Nuria Parrizas Diaz, 6-4, 6-2, while Irina Begu lost to Belinda Bencic
    of Switzerland, 6-4, 6-1.






    Bulgarian capital Sofia is this weekend hosting The European
    Judo Championships an event which brings together over 360 athletes of 40
    countries. Romania is being represented by 9 judokas, six in men’s and 3 in
    women’s competitions. Athletes from Romania walked away with no medal from last
    year’s edition of the aforementioned competition, the last medal was won by Andrea
    Chiţu, in Prague in 2020, in the 52-kilogram category.






    The Romanian women’s handball side CSM Bucharest will be
    playing Danish side Team Esbjerg in a home match counting towards the Champions
    League quarter finals. The Romanian side also relies on left-back Eduarda
    Amorim of Brazil who has also played for Russian side Rostov-Don, which has
    been excluded from the Champions League due to the war in Ukraine.






    And now football. This weekend will be seeing the matches of
    the seventh leg of Romania’s first football league. On Friday Sepsi Sfantu
    Gheorghe will be playing Gaz Metan Medias and Chindia Targoviste is up against
    Rapid Bucharest. On Saturday, Dinamo Bucharest plays Academica Clinceni in a
    home game while in Craiova, western Romania, local side FCU 1948 takes on UTA
    Arad. On Monday, CS Mioveni, on their own turf will be playing FC Botosani. Gaz
    Metan with minus 37 points and Academica with minus five are presently at the
    bottom of the table and cannot avoid demotion any more.




    Dinamo Bucharest with 16 points will go into the playoffs in
    an attempt to remain in the first football league.


    In the other matches on Saturday, Universitatea Craiova on
    their own turf will be playing FC Voluntari while on Sunday, Farul Constanta
    travels to Cluj to take on local side CFR. FCSB takes on FC Arges on the
    National Arena stadium in Bucharest on Monday. CFR tops the table with 48
    points followed by FCSB with 46 and Universitatea Craiova with 42.




    (bill)

  • Sports Weekend

    Sports Weekend

    Romania’s national rugby side have qualified for the World
    Cup 2023 in France. The oaks’ way towards the prestigious rugby competition has
    been smoothed out by the elimination of Spain, which used an illegible player
    in two matches within the Rugby Europe Championship 2021-2022. Initially,
    following the results in the aforementioned European competition, Romania had
    to join the play-offs. But now Portugal and the side ranking after Romania will
    go into the play-offs. In France, Romania will be part of Group B together with
    defending champions South Africa, Ireland, Scotland and the first side ranking
    in the Asia/Pacific zone.




    Romanian tennis player Simona Halep secured a 6-2, 6-3 win
    against Shuai Zhang, of China on Thursday in the first round of the WTA 1000 tournament
    hosted by Madrid, which has more than 6 million euros in prize money. Also in
    the first round, Sorana Cîrstea of Romania has conceded defeat to Spanish
    player Nuria Parrizas Diaz, 6-4, 6-2, while Irina Begu lost to Belinda Bencic
    of Switzerland, 6-4, 6-1.






    Bulgarian capital Sofia is this weekend hosting The European
    Judo Championships an event which brings together over 360 athletes of 40
    countries. Romania is being represented by 9 judokas, six in men’s and 3 in
    women’s competitions. Athletes from Romania walked away with no medal from last
    year’s edition of the aforementioned competition, the last medal was won by Andrea
    Chiţu, in Prague in 2020, in the 52-kilogram category.






    The Romanian women’s handball side CSM Bucharest will be
    playing Danish side Team Esbjerg in a home match counting towards the Champions
    League quarter finals. The Romanian side also relies on left-back Eduarda
    Amorim of Brazil who has also played for Russian side Rostov-Don, which has
    been excluded from the Champions League due to the war in Ukraine.






    And now football. This weekend will be seeing the matches of
    the seventh leg of Romania’s first football league. On Friday Sepsi Sfantu
    Gheorghe will be playing Gaz Metan Medias and Chindia Targoviste is up against
    Rapid Bucharest. On Saturday, Dinamo Bucharest plays Academica Clinceni in a
    home game while in Craiova, western Romania, local side FCU 1948 takes on UTA
    Arad. On Monday, CS Mioveni, on their own turf will be playing FC Botosani. Gaz
    Metan with minus 37 points and Academica with minus five are presently at the
    bottom of the table and cannot avoid demotion any more.




    Dinamo Bucharest with 16 points will go into the playoffs in
    an attempt to remain in the first football league.


    In the other matches on Saturday, Universitatea Craiova on
    their own turf will be playing FC Voluntari while on Sunday, Farul Constanta
    travels to Cluj to take on local side CFR. FCSB takes on FC Arges on the
    National Arena stadium in Bucharest on Monday. CFR tops the table with 48
    points followed by FCSB with 46 and Universitatea Craiova with 42.




    (bill)

  • Farewell to two stars

    Farewell to two stars

    Romanians are grieving as of Sunday, when two valuable personalities passed away: several times canoeing Olympic champion Ivan Patzaichin and actor Ion Caramitru, the director of the Bucharest National Theatre and the head of the Romanian Theatre Union (UNITER).



    “A legend … a champion human being has turned into a star. Ivan Patzaichin has left us. His is a success story, but also a story of decency and strength of character. It is the story of a son of the Danube Delta who gave back tenfold and inspired people to live beautifully, the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee announced on Sunday morning. The athlete was 71.



    The winner of seven Olympic medals, four gold and three silver, Ivan Patzaichin also won 22 world championships. As a coach, he carried on his stellar track record, as his students won as many as 150 Olympic, world and European competitions.



    Had this been a regular early autumn day, Ivan Patzaichin would have now given us details about a new edition of the international rowing festival “Rowmania Fest, organised for over 10 years now by the “Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23 Association and scheduled to take place these very days. Over the years, the event has included the first European childrens triathlon, competitions on the Danube between various Delta communities, roundtables on biodiversity, concerts, fairs and outdoor exhibitions.



    A modest, generous and selfless man, Ivan Patzaichin repeatedly turned down political and administrative posts, and went through the suffering of the recent period with the same smile he had given the world on so many occasions, including a race with a broken paddle that left the world speechless.



    He was the vice-president of the Romanian Kayaking and Canoeing Federation and vice-president of the Romanian Olympic Committee (elected in 1990) and he is the only Romanian athlete to hold the Platinum Wreath Olympic Order.



    Also on Sunday, the great actor Ion Caramitru died, aged 79. He was the director of the National Theatre in Bucharest, played hundreds of parts on stage, in radio drama and on screen. He was a stage director, a professor, a culture minister, the president of UNITER, and a participant in the 1989 anti-communist revolution in Romania.



    During his long and outstanding acting career, Ion Caramitru won countless awards and distinctions, and was made an honorary knight of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1995. He was also awarded as Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France.



    Ion Caramitru was declared one of the best 10 actors in the role of Hamlet in a ranking put together by the former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Michael Boyd. As he himself confessed, Caramitrus life was very much shaped by poetry, which he saw as a miracle of language. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • Decorations for the Olympic medalists

    Decorations for the Olympic medalists

    Romania has won four medals at the recent Olympic Games in Tokyo, just like five years ago, in Rio, and three less medals than in the 2012 Olympics hosted by London. The only Olympic gold in Tokyo was brought by the women’s rowing crew made up of Simona Radiș and Ancuța Bodnar, in the double sculls event. Also in rowing, but in the mens four, Mihăiță Țigănescu, Mugurel Semciuc, Ștefan Berariu and Cosmin Pascari won the silver medal. In the mens pair, Marius Cozmiuc and Ciprian Tudosă have also won a silver medal. Ana Maria Popescu also brought Romania a silver medal in the fencing epee event. The nine Romanian athletes who have won medals in Tokyo have been decorated in Bucharest by President Klaus Iohannis.



    Simona Radiş spoke on behalf of the athletes at the awards ceremony: “We have discovered what solidarity means, we have received a lot of positive energy and we have been very happy to see that the Romanian society recognized our performance. We are ready to send the message that the Romanian sport has its place in a modern society.”



    The Romanian president told the Olympic medalists that everything they did for Romanian sport is admirable, despite countless and unfair obstacles that sometimes emerge.



    Klaus Iohannis: “Performance is being built every day and involves constant investment in sports infrastructure, the support and promotion of talents and the full involvement of all government actors.”



    At the end of the awards ceremony, President Iohannis added that sport should become a priority again, because it involves the respect for certain values ​​essential for a solid and sound society. Romania ranked 46th in the ranking of medals obtained in Tokyo. The team included 101 athletes, 46 women and 55 men who participated in 17 sports events. The only athlete who could not compete at all was Andrea Miklos, who had some medical problems. Also due to health problems, gymnast Larisa Iordache withdrew from the beam final. Romania’s representatives competed in such competitions as swimming, athletics, rowing, football, artistic gymnastics, 3×3 womens basketball, cycling, wrestling, sports shooting, canoeing, table tennis, boxing, fencing, triathlon, judo, archery and tennis.



    The 32nd edition of the Tokyo Summer Olympics took place between July 23 and August 8. Originally scheduled for the summer of 2020, the event was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting with the second edition of the Olympics (1900) until now, Romania has rarely missed the most important sporting event of the world. By far, Romania’s participation in the 1984 edition of the Olympics hosted by Los Angeles was the most successful. The Romanian athletes obtained 53 medals at that time, of which 20 gold, which then placed Romania 2nd after the US in the medals ranking. (LS)