Radio România Internațional

Tag: medals

  • August 18, 2021 UPDATE

    August 18, 2021 UPDATE

    Finance – Dan Vîlceanu is the new finance minister of Romania, after he was sworn in on Wednesday. He had been nominated by the National Political Bureau of the National Liberal Party – PNL, the main party in the ruling center-right coalition in Romania. The Prime Minister Florin Cîţu last month dismissed the former finance minister, Alexandru Nazare, and has acted as interim finance minister so far.



    Covid – 541 new Covid-19 cases were reported on Wednesday in Romania, following about 35,000 tests. The authorities also reported 6 deaths in 24 hours in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. The number of patients who need hospitalization continues to grow. Currently, there are over 1,000 people in hospital of whom 146 are in intensive care units. Against the backdrop of the rapid growth of COVID cases, hospitals have begun preparations for the 4th wave, which is expected in September, according to some experts.



    Summit – US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have agreed, on the phone, to attend a G7 virtual summit on Afghanistan next week, the White House and Downing Street have announced. It is President Joe Bidens first conversation with a head of state or government since the Taliban entered the Afghan capital, Kabul, after 20 years of military intervention by US-led international coalition in which the United Kingdom played an important role. In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, admitted that the West had made mistakes in Afghanistan, especially because it did not anticipate the Talibans rapid takeover. He explained that the EU’s priority was to evacuate the European citizens as well as the Afghans who worked for the EU bloc. On the other hand, official sources from Abu Dhabi announced that the Afghan president Ashraf Ghani and his family are on the territory of the United Arab Emirates, where they were received for humanitarian reasons after leaving the country on Sunday.



    Olympics — The nine Romanian athletes who received medals at the Olympic Games in Tokyo were decorated, on Wednesday, in Bucharest, by President Klaus Iohannis. These are: Nicoleta Ancuţa Bodnar and Simona Geanina Radiş — winners of the gold medal in the womens double sculls, Ana-Maria Popescu — winner of the silver medal in womens epee, Marius Vasile Cozmiuc and Ciprian Tudosă – silver in the mens double sculls, and Mihăiţă Vasile Ţigănescu, Mugurel Vasile Semciuc, Ştefan Constantin Berariu and Cosmin Pascari — winners of the silver medal in the quadruple sculls. The Romanian athletes’ victories in Tokyo are all the more remarkable as they were obtained in pandemic conditions, President Iohannis underlined. He also stated that Romanian sport should become a priority again, as it represents an important pillar for a healthy society. We remind you that Romania ranked 46th in the medals ranking obtained at the recent Olympic Games.



    Tennis — The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep (13 WTA) on Tuesday obtained her first victory after a break of three and a half months, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, against the Polish Magda Linette, in the first round of the tournament WTA 1,000 in Cincinnati (USA), which has total prizes up for grabs of over 2 million dollars. In the second round, Simona Halep will be up against Jessica Pegula. Also on Tuesday, the Romanian-German pair Horia Tecău / Kevin Krawietz qualified to the eighth finals of the doubles event of the ATP Masters 1,000 tournament in Cincinnati. The two defeated the Argentinean pair Federico Delbonis/Diego Schwartzman 7-5, 6-3. In the eighth final, the Romanian-German couple will face the pair Marcelo Arevalo (El Salvador) and Fabio Fognini (Italy). Tecău already won a title in Cincinnati, in 2012, together with the Swede Robert Lindstedt.



    Agriculture – The wheat, barley and rapeseed crops obtained by Romania this year are the highest since the countrys accession to the European Union in 2007, the Agriculture Ministry officials announced. For wheat, the crop exceeds 11 million tons, an amount twice as big as that reported last year, when it was affected by drought. The total barley output stands at 1.88 million tons this year, which is a record level while the rapeseed output exceeded 3 tons per hectare. (LS)

  • 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 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, a good run at the European Gymnastics Championship

    Romania, a good run at the European Gymnastics Championship

    Once a great power in European and world competitions, Romanian gymnastics has seen a decline in recent years. This is why the joy brought by Romanian athletes to gymnastics fans late last week can be translated into the hope that Romanian gymnasts will return to top places in international competitions, as it had been the case ever since 1976, when Nadia Comăneci got the first 10 in the history of this sport, at the Montreal Olympics.



    This past weekend for the first time in 6 years, the national womens gymnastics team went to the podium at the 33rd edition of the European Championship.



    On Saturday in Mersin, Turkey, the team made up of Larisa Iordache, Daniela Trică, Antonia Duţă, Silviana Sfiringu and Ioana Stănciulescu won the silver. First came Ukraine, and third–Hungary.



    The competition continued on Sunday with the apparatus finals for both juniors and seniors, and medals continued to come. The leader of the senior team, Larisa Iordache (24) won the gold in the beam and floor finals and the silver in vault. Her performance is particularly outstanding as it comes after a 3-year break, during which the athlete underwent surgery. In an Instagram post at the end of the competition in Turkey, the several-times European and world champion Larisa Iordache said “it is never too late to follow your dream… all you need is an impulse for the strength within you to surface. And we should not forget the beam final, where Silviana Sfiringu won the silver as well.



    Adding to the seniors performance are the medals won by the juniors: 6 gold medals in all the events (team, all-around and apparatus), 2 silver medals for Maria Ceplinschi in the all-around and floor final, and one bronze for Andreea Preda on beam.



    But the rising star at the Mersin championship was junior Ana Bărbosu, who won 6 gold medals—with the team, in the all-around and all the apparatus finals, a record for Romanias participation in the European Gymnastics Championships.



    However, we should keep in mind that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, athletes from only 14 countries attended this 33rd edition, with European gymnastics powerhouses like Russia, France, Britain, Italy and the Netherlands skipping this years championship. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • July 28, 2019

    July 28, 2019

    Protests — Thousands of people participated on Saturday evening in a protest organized in Bucharest in front of the Interior Ministry against the way in which the authorities have managed the case of a teenager from Caracal (southern Romania) Alexandra, who called the emergency number 112 to announce that she was abducted by a man, but the authorities have only managed to reach the place where the girl was kept after 19 hours. Protests also took place in Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Basov, Braila and Alexandria. The suspect, a 65 year old man, was taken into temporary custody for 30 days, being accused of child trafficking and rape, but so far there is no evidence for murder accusations. The suspect has not admitted any of the accusations and no body was found. One of the most important pieces of evidence in this case is the girl’s emergency calls made from the aggressor’s phone. On Saturday, the PM Viorica Dancila dismissed several officials and ordered the setting up of an inter-institutional working group that should draft a plan of urgent measures to improve the reaction time in critical situations at the level of the entire state system. In turn, president Klaus Iohannis called on the interior minister and the director of the Special Telecommunications Service to speed up investigations into the Caracal case. He added that he expected a first assessment of the situation on Tuesday at the meeting of the country’s Supreme Defense Council.



    Presidential election vote — Romanian voters from abroad who want to vote in the November presidential election by post or in a polling station from abroad, near their place of residence, can sign up on an online platform as of Sunday. The Permanent Electoral Authority created the website votstraintate.ro to have a clearer record of Romanians abroad and to provide them with more info on the voting process in the run up to the November presidential election. The portal has two sections: voter abroad in a polling station and voter abroad through postal vote. The registration forms will be active until September 11. The Ministry for the Romanians Abroad has recently announced that more than 5 million and a half of Romanians have left the country. Alongside the Romanians in the historical communities, the number of Romanians living abroad stands at almost 10 million.



    Baku — Romania ended the 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival that took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, between July 21-27 on 11th position in the nations’ ranking with 19 medals: 4 gold, 10 silver and 5 bronze. The first three positions are held by Russia, Great Britain and Turkey. Romanian athletes have won medals in 6 disciplines: wrestling, judo, swimming, artistic gymnastics, volleyball and athletics. Romania was represented by 103 athletes at the 15th edition of the summer 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival.



    Rowing — Romania won a gold medal and a silver one on the first day of the final competition of the World Rowing Under-23 Championships from Sarasota-Bradenton (Florida, USA). Florin Sorin Lehaci and Dumitru Alexandru Ciobică world vice-champions in 2018 won the gold medal in the men’s double sculls competition. The women’s four crew made up of Larisa Elena Roşu, Elena Logofătu, Nicoleta Paşcanu, Tabita Maftei won the bronze medal. On Sunday Romania will be represented by 4 crews in the finals, in the men’s single scull, the men’s four, the women’s eight and the men’s eight.



    Anthem — On Monday military ceremonies will be organized in Bucharest and other cities of Romania to mark the National Anthem Day. Other events include religious services and music shows. Celebrated on July 29, the National Anthem Day was proclaimed in 1998. Romania’s current anthem is “Deşteaptă-te, române!”, – “Awaken Thee Romanian!” and it is considered a national symbol after the fall of the communist regime in December 1989. The anthem is inspired by a patriotic poem by Andrei Muresanu published in 1848 with the music collected by Anton Pann. (translation by L. Simion)