Radio România Internațional

Tag: Romanian handball

  • RRI Sports Club – Handball

    RRI Sports Club – Handball

    The Romanian men’s handball team, Dinamo Bucharest, has advanced to the European League quarterfinals after defeating Silkeborg of Denmark away from home 27-24, in the return leg of the quarterfinals playoffs. The top scorers for Dinamo were Andriy Akimenko of Ukraine with 7 goals and Miklos Rosta of Hungary with 6 goals. Xavi Pascual’s trainees had an exceptional first half, leading 16-8 half-time. The Danish side upped their game in the second half and narrowed the lead to 2 goals, but Dinamo eventually secured the qualification. The Romanian club had won the first leg in Bucharest 37-34. In the quarterfinals, Dinamo will take on another team from Denmark, Skjern Handbold, first on April 23 in Bucharest and then on April 30 away from home.

     

     

    In women’s handball, the defending champions CSM Bucharest will play the Romanian vice-champions Rapid Bucharest in the first Romanian Cup semi-final. Romania’s representatives in the European League Final Four, Gloria Bistrița and Dunărea Brăila, will face off in the second semi-final. The draw was made by SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea and Romanian national squad goalkeeper Daciana Hosu, currently training in Bucharest. Hosu will play for CSM starting next season. Romanian Cup semi-final matches will be played on April 20-21 in Brăila. Cup winners CSM Bucharest last season defeated CSM Târgu Jiu in the final. Attending the Romanian Cup draw, Constantin Din, chairman of the Romanian Handball Federation, referred to the value of Romania’s women’s domestic competitions. “We’re the only country with three teams qualified in the later stages of European competitions”. We recall CSM Bucharest qualified to the Champions League quarterfinals whereas Gloria Bistrița and Dunărea Brăila will face off in the European League semi-final in Graz, Austria, for a place in the final. (VP)

  • Fewer Romanian athletes in the Tokyo Olympics

    Fewer Romanian athletes in the Tokyo Olympics

    Romanian football fans have been quite vocal about the subpar performances
    of Romanian footballers in the last two decades. Their point of reference is
    the 1990s, when Romania took part in every World Cup, managing in 1994, in the
    United States, to reach the quarterfinals. It is the most notable result of
    Romanian football. In turn, handball fans are equally disappointed with the
    defeat of Romania’s men’s team, a four-time world champion, in the 2022
    European Championship preliminaries in Bucharest. The Romanian team holds only
    mathematical chances of qualifying, but have managed a historic
    counterperformance of only drawing against Kosovo. Losing five goals behind to
    a team whose federation was set up just a few years ago is humiliating, Radu
    Voinea, a world champion in 1974 and a medalist at the Olympic Games in 1972,
    1976 and 1980 said. Humiliating, but not painful, says Alexandru Dedu, the
    president of the Romanian Handball Federation, who is getting a lot of
    criticism these days. Another former handball legend, Vasile Stângă, two-time
    bronze medalist at the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games, said that, if the Romanian
    women’s team also misses the chance to qualify to the Olympic Games, then the
    whole Federation leadership should be sacked.

    A week after the embarrassing
    defeat of the men’s team, the women’s team also ranked last in the tournament
    held in Montenegro, also involving the participation of the host country and
    Norway. People are already talking about a failed generation, that of the
    32-year-old left wing Cristina Neagu, who has been designated best handballer
    in the world on several occasions. With Neagu as captain, Romania hasn’t won a
    single trophy in the last decade, despite the fact that women’s handball is
    still breathing. Women’s clubs are still getting good results in European
    inter-club competitions, and the Romanian national women’s team is faring
    decently, while men’s handball is in intensive care. The absence of handballers
    have stretched thin Romania’s delegation to the Tokyo Olympics. Chances of
    getting a medal are also reduced significantly.

    In other news, the four
    Romanian athletes who this weekend competed in the pre-Olympic Greek-Roman
    wrestling tournament in Budapest, were knocked out in the preliminary rounds.
    To qualify to the Tokyo Olympics, our athletes needed to reach the finals. So
    far, only Alina Vuc will represent Romania in the 50-kg category in the Olympic
    wrestling event, after having won silver at the World Championships in
    Kazakhstan in 2019. Romanian wrestlers have one last chance of qualifying to
    the Tokyo Olympic Games at the world pre-Olympic tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria,
    to be held over May 6-9.