The city of Istanbul last week saw the 2022 IBA
Women’s World Boxing Championships. Romania was represented by five athletes, Steluţa
Duţă, in the 48 kg category, Eugenia Anghel in the 50, Lăcrămioara Perijoc in 54,
Claudia Nechita in 57, and Alexandra Petcu in the 81-kilogram category.
The best Romanian performance in Istanbul was obtained
by silver medalist Lăcrămioara Perijoc, a result which also brought her Radio
Romania International’s title ‘Athlete of the Week’.
On her way to the finals Perijoc secured wins against
the defending world champion, Wen-Hsiao Huang of Taiwan, against Niamh Chloe
Fay of Ireland and Dina Jolaman of Kazakhstan, who was world champion in 2019 and
the en titre champion of Asia. Unfortunately, Perijoc lost the finals on points
3-2 to Hatice Akbaş of the host country. According to Agerpres news agency, which
is quoting Adrian Lăcătuș the headcoach of the Romanian team, Perijoc managed a
better show than the Turkish challenger. The referees’ assessment wasn’t quite
fair and due to the competition’s rules it could not even be challenged. The
silver medal has also brought Lăcrămioara Perijoc 50 thousand dollars.
Lenuța Lăcrămioara Perijoc was born in Suceava county,
northern Romania, on 3 February 1994. The athlete was discovered by coach Doru
Iftime in 2010, while she was in the local IT high-school. Concurrently with
boxing she also played football for a regional women’s first leaguer. Lăcrămioara
Perijoc obtained her best performance so far in September 2019 – the gold medal
at the European Championships in Madrid.