Radio România Internațional

Category: Sport

  • RRI Sports Club: Table tennis

    RRI Sports Club: Table tennis

    The Romanian table tennis player Elisabeta Samara has won the Qatar Open, which is a leg of the ITTF world circuit with 220,000 dollars prize money up for grabs. In Doha, Samara defeated Germany’s Ying Han in the final, 4-nil, the sets score being 11-6, 12-10, 11-6, 11-9. In the first round, Samara eased past Dora Madarasz of Hungary, 4-3. In the round of last 16, Samara sealed a 4-nil win against I-Chen Lee of Taiwan, while in the quarterfinals the Romanian clinchéd a 4-2 win against Jiadou Wu of Germany. In the semi-finals, Elisabeta Samara had no problem outperforming South Korea’s Haeun Yang, 4-1. The Romanian player’s excellent run in Doha also brought her 26,000 dollars.


    Another Romanian, Bernadette Szocs, conceded victory to Hong Kong’s Huajun Jiang in the very first round, 4-1, but Szocs braced up claiming the Under-21 title. The main draw’s fifth favourite to winning the Under-21 tournament, in the round of last 16, Bernadette Szocs sealed a 3-1 win against Yu-Chiao Hung of Taiwan, then in the quarterfinals the Romanian secured a 3-2 win against Hoi Kem Doo of Hong Kong, while in the semi-finals Szocs had no problem sealing a 3-nil win against Singapore’s Yihan Zhou.



    The final saw the Romanian taking on another challenger from Singapore, Ye Lin, whom she defeated, 3-2. Her victory in the Under-21 tournament earned Bernadette Szocs 2,000 dollars. Bernadette Szocs said right after the final that she had a good match start, but then her adversary grew accustomed to her style, she knew how she would be playing and changed the tactics. She felt she had nothing to lose, because her adversary ranked higher than her in the standings anyway, and she did her best. Agerpres also quoted Bernadette Szocs as saying that all the contenders she took on in this competition were from Asia. She screamed for every ball she played to motivate herself, but she believes that also influenced her opponents, it intimidated them.



    In the ITTF Czech Junior Open 2015, Romanian table tennis scored success a couple of times. In the cadet team challenge, Romania walked away with gold, defeating the Czech Republic in the final 3-2. In the women’s singles, Andreea Dragoman won the silver medal, and in the final she conceded victory to Brazil’s Bruna Takahashi, 3-nil. In the men’s singles of the junior category, Cristian Pletea secured a 4-3 win against the Hungarian Bence Majoros in the final. In the men’s junior category, Romania walked home with bronze as in the semi-finals it conceded victory to Japan, 3-1.

  • Radio Romania International Sports Club – Fencing

    Radio Romania International Sports Club – Fencing


    2015 started in fencing with several top-level competitions. For Romanian fencers, the most important were the World Cup stages in the men’s saber and women’s epee events.



    In late January, the Romanian athletes participated in the saber events hosted by the Italian city of Padova. Romania was ranked on the 8th position in the nations’ competition, and is currently 6th placed according to World Cup rankings.



    In the men’s individual event, Tiberiu Dolniceanu ranked 12th in Padova. Dolniceanu is also the best-placed Romanian fencer according to world rankings, occupying the 7th position at the moment. We recall that in 2014, at the World Championships in Kazan, Russia, Dolniceanu walked away with bronze. We should also note that later this week, Romanian saber fencers will take part in the World Cup stage to be held in Warsaw, Poland.



    In the women’s epee event, Romania is 3rd placed at the moment according to World Cup rankings. Less than a month ago, in the World Cup stage held in Barcelona, Ana-Maria Branza and her team mates won the bronze medal, clinching a win in the game against Russia.



    In Buenos Airs last week, Romania won the silver medals. In the final, the Romanian fencers conceded victory to Italy, after having secured yet another win over Russia in the semifinals. In the women’s individual event in Buenos Aires, Ana-Maria Branza was 5th placed. According to the season’s rankings, best placed is Simona Gherman, currently ranking 6th in the standings, while Ana-Maria Branza is 8th placed.



    This year, the European Fencing Championships will be hosted by the Swiss city of Montreux in June, while the World Championships are scheduled in Moscow, in July.

  • Athlete of the Week on RRI – Tennis Player Irina Camelia Begu

    Athlete of the Week on RRI – Tennis Player Irina Camelia Begu

    At the end of last week, the Romanian women’s team qualified to the World Group playoffs in the Fed Cup. The Romanian players outperformed Spain in Galati, South-Eastern Romania, score 3-2. On Saturday, Simona Halep grabbed an easy win over Silvia Soler Espinosa, 6-2, 6-1, while Garbine Muguruza defeated Irina Camelia Begu 6-3, 6-2. On Sunday, Muguruza also won the match against Halep, 6-4, 6-3. The score read 2-1 for Spain, and Romania’s chances of joining the elite of world tennis were slipping away.



    Irina Camelia Begu however stepped up and proved her value and determination to win. In the last singles match, the Romanian won against Silvia Soler Espinosa, 6-2, 6-4.



    The doubles match would thus decide the winner. Irina Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu played for Romania against Garbine Muguruza and Anabel Medina-Garrigues. The Spanish players won the first set 5-7, but Romania came back into the game to win the last two sets and thus the match.



    For her outstanding performances on Sunday and for her valuable contribution to Romania’s win, we have designated Irina Camelia Begu Athlete of the Week on RRI.



    Irina Camelia Begu was born in Bucharest on August 26, 1990. The first notable performance in her career came in 2006, when she won the under-16 European title. She then took on the WTA standings, progressively climbing with each year. In 2011 she entered the world’s top 40 players. In the coming years Begu focused on doubles competitions. In 2012 she went up to 35th position in WTA doubles standings. She has so far won a singles WTA tournament, in 2012 in Taskent, and four doubles competitions, in 2012 at Hobart, in 2013 at s’Hertogenbosch, and in 2014 at Rio de Janeiro and Seoul. At present she ranks 49th in doubles standings and 34th in singles standings, her career best.



  • RRI Sports Club – Romanian tennis players at Australian Open

    RRI Sports Club – Romanian tennis players at Australian Open

    In the women’s singles, only one Romanian is among the favorites to winning this tournament, namely Seed no. 3 Simona Halep. Another Romanian tennis player, however, scored a surprise victory in the first round. Irina-Camelia Begu has edged out favorite number nine, Germany’s Angelique Kerber. Irina has already made it to the third round, as on Wednesday she defeated Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic, 7-5, 6-4.



    In the men’s doubles, two pairs with a Romanian member are among the favorites to winning the competition. Best-ranked is the Romanian-Dutch pair made up of Horia Tecau and Jean Julien Rojer, who are favorites number 6. Romanian Florin Mergea and Dominic Inglot of Britain are 14th placed, having already qualified to the second round, after a 6-2, 6-2 win against the all-Australian pair made up of Matthew Ebden and Matt Reid.



    In the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, Monica Niculescu of Romania and Vitalya Dyatchenko of Russia defeated on Wednesday the all-American team made up of Lauren Davis and Christina McHale, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.



    It’s worth mentioning that Romanian tennis players had a hard time competing in the Australian Open along the years. In 1980, Virginia Ruzici reached as far as the quarterfinals, when she conceded victory to the Czech Hana Mandlikova, who walked away with the trophy. In 1997, another Romanian, Irina Sparlea was edged out of the competition also in the quarterfinals stage, being defeated by Martina Hingis of Switzerland, who won the competition.



    As for the men’s competition, Andrei Pavel qualified twice to the Australian Open’s eighth finals. In 1999 he was defeated by Russia’s Evgeny Kafelnikof, while in 2004, he was eliminated from competition by Spanish tennis player Juan Carlos Ferrero. In 2012 Romania’s Horia Tecau and American Bethanie Mattek-Sands won the mixed doubles finals of Australian Open.

  • Romanian biker Emanuel Gyenes

    Romanian biker Emanuel Gyenes

    The tennis tournaments in Australia and New Zealand and the Dakar Rally made the headlines at the beginning of this year. Since 2008, for security reasons, the famous race has been held not in Africa but in South America.



    On January 4th, 138 competitors lined up at the starting grid of that race in the motorcycle section, 164 in the car section and 48 in the ATV section. 64 crews joined the race in the truck section to cover a route of 92 hundred kilometers in 13 legs, which crossed Argentine, Bolivia and Chile. Two Romanians Marcel Butuza and Emanuel Gyenes attended the famous race on KTM bikes. Butuza abandoned in the eighth leg, when only 82 competitors were continuing the race, actaully half of all the participants. Emanuel Gyenes was one of those who were still running in the race was, ranking 21st in the general standings, four hours and a half from the winner. Emanuel Gyenes came 21st in the event, six hours after the winner, Marc Coma of Spain. But the Romanian made it first in the marathon section, where competitors aren’t allowed to change parts of the bike, including the engine. Gyenes was followed in the Marathon section by Swede Thomas Berglund, who came 14 minutes and 22 seconds after the winner and Jurgen Van den Goobergh, from the Netherlands, with four hours and six minutes after the winner. For the performance he obtained in the Dakar Rally, Radio Romania International has designated Emanuel Gyenes, the athlete of the week.



    The Romanian didn’t start off the race on the right foot; the engine of his bike was almost completely drained of oil during the entire second leg of the race. He was supplied oil by the spectators who helped him end up on the 50th position in the leg. He made up for the time loss in the first two legs flying through the Atacama desert at a speed that pushed him to the 13th place in the last special event of the contest. Besides his success in the Marathon race, the Romanian also secured a 9th position in the amateur contest attended by competitors who aren’t formally representing any motorcycle brand.



    At the age of 30, Emanuel Gyenes lives in Satu Mare, northwestern Romania and is considered the best enduro and rally-raid pilot in Romania. He has also participated in four other editions of the Dakar Rally and in 2011 he also came first in the Marathon section of the race. In 2012, Manuel Gyenes came 17th in the race, his best performance of all his five participations in the prestigious event.


  • Handball

    Handball

    Romania’s under-21 national handball team has secured its qualification for this coming summer’s World Championship. In the last-but-one game of the preliminaries hosted by the southern Romanian town of Pitesti this past Sunday, the Romanians managed a 27-26 win against Slovenia. Previously Romania secured yet another win against Bulgaria, 38 to 29, and managed a 23-all draw against Croatia. Our national team thus came on top of the table in the sixth preliminary group, with 5 points on its record sheet. In terms of points, Croatia stood on par with Romania but had a poorer goal average. The World Championship’s final tournament is scheduled in Brazil over July 19 — August 2.



    Domestic championship leader HCM Minaur Baia Mare are on a training stage in the Croatian city of Porec. The Romanians are to play three games against three of Croatia’s league one teams. Games have been scheduled on January 15, 17 and 19, and the Romanians will be traveling back home immediately after they have played their training stage fixtures. HCM Minaur Baia Mare’s first official game will be played on January 28, against Poli Timisoara; the match counts towards the domestic championship’s 16th leg.



    Between January 21st and 23rd Dinamo Bucharest, 3rd-placed in the men’s National Handball League, will be taking part in an international tournament in Saint-Etienne, France. Dinamo will be facing such strong teams as French championship leader Montpellier, Saint Raphael or Club Africain de Tunis. On January 22nd, Dinamo will be taking on Saint-Raphael, while Montpellier are pitted against Club Africain. On January 23rd, the winners of the two games will be competing for the top position, while the defeated teams will be fighting for the 3rd place in the tournament.



    We go out with news from women’s handball. Defending champions HCM Baia Mare’s newly-appointed Slovenian manager Tone Tiselj had an auspicious debut game in the domestic championship, as Sunday night on home ground HCM Baia Mare defeated the southern Romanian team SCM Craiova, 28-15, in the 14th leg of Women’s National Handball League. This is for the first time when 53-year old Tone Tiselj is at the helm of a Romanian team. The peak moment of Tiselj’s career was the Champions League title he won with Krim Ljubljana, in 2001 and 2003, respectively.

  • The Athlete of the Week –Tennis Player Simona Halep

    The Athlete of the Week –Tennis Player Simona Halep

    Tennis is the sports discipline that early in 2015 brought Romania the first praiseworthy individual performance, since Simona Halep won the WTA tournament in Shenzhen, China, securing a straight-sets win in the final against her Swiss challenger Timea Bacsinsky, 6-2, 6-2. The Romanian ranked as the main favorite to winning the tournament.


    Halep’s excellent run in Shenzhen included a first-round win against Germany’s Anita Beck, who was the only tennis player to whom Halep conceded victory in one single set. Then the Romanian had no problem outclassing Russia’s Natalya Vihliantseva, Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia and Saisai Zheng of China, with no set conceded this time. For her excellent run in the Shenzhen tournament, Radio Romania International has designated Simona Halep the Athlete of the Week.



    Simona Halep was born on September 27, 1991 in Constanta, southeastern Romania. She made her debut as a professional in 2006, when she played her first ITF circuit games. In 2010, Halep won a place among the world’s top 100 tennis players. The progress she made was amazing, since in 2013 Halep‘s record included 53 wins and 17 defeats; back then the Romanian won six WTA tournaments, the ones in Nürnberg, s-Hertogenbosch, Budapest, New Haven, Moscow and Sofia. In 2014, Simona Halep won the Doha and Bucharest tournaments, also playing in the finals of the Roland Garros and Madrid tournaments. In August 2014, Halep was 2nd-seeded in the world rankings, the highest position ever for a Romanian lady tennis player. End-of-the-year WTA rankings saw Help being the 3-rd seed.



    This week the Romanian tennis player was supposed to be playing in the Sydney tournament, a Grand Slam event with 731 thousand dollars prize money up for grabs, but on Tuesday Simona Halep withdrew from competition because of a gastroenteritis whose signs she had already felt while playing in China. The Romanian tennis player is now in a recovery period, as she needs to gather strength for the Australian Open, scheduled to kick off in Melbourne next week.



  • Athlete of the Year 2014: Tennis Player Simona Halep

    Athlete of the Year 2014: Tennis Player Simona Halep

    The year 2014 was marked by a series of top-level results for Romanian sports. In fencing and gymnastics, our country succeeded in defending its place among the world’s top-performing nations, very much owing to the silver medals grabbed by Tiberiu Dolniceanu and Larisa Iordache in the World Championships. The most outstanding performance however came from women’s tennis, where Simona Halep had an amazing ascension in 2014, ranking 2nd in world standings. For her remarkable run this year, we have designated Simon Halep Athlete of the Year 2014 on Radio Romania International.



    The first notable achievement for Simona came in May 2013, in Rome. It is there that her ascension started, after knocking out several worldclass players ever since the first qualifying rounds. She reached as far as the semifinals. In 2013 Simona won 6 top-level tournaments. She started the year in 47th place and began the 2014 season in 11th place.



    This year Simona had an unconvincing debut, being knocked out early, in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, by Dominika Cibulkova. At the indoor tournament in Paris she lost in the round of 16 to Kristina Mladenovic of France. Her good run started in Doha, in February. Simona slapped a 6-2, 6-3 win against Angelique Kerber of Germany in the finals. In March, she lost the Indian Wells semi-finals to Agnieska Radwanska of Poland. In May she played in the Madrid finals against Maria Sharapova. The same Russian player denied Simona her first win in a Grand Slam tournament, at Roland Garros. In June, she reached as far as the semi-finals of the Wimbledon tournament, losing to Eugenie Bouchard of Canada. In July she won the Bucharest Open, defeating Roberta Vinci of Italy in the finals, 6-1, 6-3. In August she was ranked 2nd in world standings, the highest ranking for a Romania.



    Then came the Champions Tournament in Singapore of October, where she reached as far as the finals, losing to Serena Williams of the United States. In the group phase however Simona grabbed an impressive 6-nil, 6-2 win, her first against Serena. She finished the year in 3rd place in WTA standings. Here is what the 23-year-old player told us about her overall performance this year:



    Simona Halep: “I worked a lot, I stuck to my daily schedule without fail…I had a strict program, I didn’t get side-tracked. It’s a great achievement for me to be in 3rd place. I never would have dreamt this at the beginning of the year, but now that I think about it, it comes as little surprise. It’s a great feeling when you see your work recognized, and I’m not planning to stop here. I’ll go as high as I can”.

  • Sports Year 2015 (II)

    Sports Year 2015 (II)

    We begin with tennis, since in July 2015, the Romanian-Dutch pair made of Horia Tecau and Jean Julien Rojer won the Wimbledon tournaments mens doubles final, grabbing a 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 win in the game against the British-Australian pair made up of Jamie Murray and John Peers. It was Horia Tecaus first win at Wimbledon, after he lost the finals he jointly played with Robert Lindstedt of Sweden for three consecutive years in 2010, 2011 and 2012. We recall that back in 1975 the Romanian tennis legend Ilie Nastase won the mens doubles at Wimbledon, pairing up with Jimmy Connors. Horia Tecau is the second Romanian to have won a Grand Slam tournament in the mens doubles.



    Romania also had a praiseworthy run at the World Fencing Championships in Moscow. In the individual saber event, Tiberiu Dolniceanu got bronze, while in the nations competition, Romanias Ana-Maria Brânză, Simona Gherman, Simona Pop and Loredana Dinu walked away with silver, having lost the final against China, 36 to 45.



    In August 2015, the World Kayak-Canoe Championships meant two noteworthy performances for Romania. The mens four canoe crew, made of Leonid Carp, Petre Condrat, Iosif Chirilă and Ştefan Andrei Strat managed a sweeping win in the 1000m event, having had the lead all throughout the race. The silver medal went to Ukraine, while Hungary won bronze. The kayak four men crew, made of Traian Neagu, Cătălin Turceag, Daniel Burciu and Petruş Gavrilă came in 7th in the 1000m race, being included among the first ten crews that booked their ticket for the Olympic Games in Rio.


    Also in August 2015, in the World Judo Championships held in Astana, Kazakhstan, Romania won two medals. Andreea Chitu, in the 52-kilogram category and Corina Caprioriu in the 57-kilogram category both walked away with silver.



    The World Rowing Championships held in France in September were also crucial for a ticket to the Olympic Games in Rio. The Romanian Rowing Federations stated aim was reached, namely that of having at least three crews book their ticket for the Olympic Games. The womens double scull crew made of Cristina Grigoras and Laura Oprea won the B final, while the mens four coxless crew made of Dragoş Aicoboae, Adrian Dămii, Marius Cozmiuc and Andrei Gontaru came in 5th in the B final. Also 5th in the B final came in the mens two coxless crew made of Cristi Pîrghie and George Palamariu. Surprisingly enough, the Romanian womens eight with coxswain crew, many a time world and Olympic champion, failed to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio.



    In September 2015, the World Cup in Rugby kick-started in England. New Zealand won the final tournament, while in Group D Romania lost the fixtures against France, Ireland and Italy, wining the game against Canada.



    In late September, the European table tennis championships were held in Russias city of Ekaterinburg. For Romania, Elizabeta Samara won gold in the womens singles, silver in the womens doubles, pairing up with Hungarys Georgina Pota. In the nations competition, Romania walked away with silver.



    In October, the World Gymnastics Championships were held in the Scottish city of Glasgow. Sadly, it was Romanian gymnastics least satisfactory run in the last 40 years. The womens team was ranked 13th, and missed the opportunity to earn a position among the worlds top eight teams that took part in the World Championships finals, also failing to qualify to the 2016 edition of the Olympic Games in Rio. The same happened to the mens team, which was ranked 14th after the qualifying rounds. However, in the individual all-round event, Larisa Iordache won the silver medal, while in the mens vault event, 35-year old Marian Dragulescu also won silver.



    In November, Romania won 6 medals at the European Aerobic Gymnastics Championships in Elvas, Portugal, of which 2 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze. In womens handball, in November two Romanian teams qualified for the Champions Leagues main round, CSM Bucharest and HCM Baia Mare. Also in November, the Champions Tournament in London saw one Romanian tennis player winning the doubles competition. In the final, Horia Tecau and Jean Julien Rojer outperformed the pair made up of another Romanian, Florin Mergea and Rohan Bopanna of India, 6-4, 6-3.



    December 2015 was an auspicious month for Romanias womens handball team. At the World Championship held in Denmark, Romania walked away with bronze, having trounced Poland in a fixture for the 3rd place, 31-22. Cristina Neagus record of 63 goals earned the Romanian athlete the title of the Championships most efficient scorer. In the final, Neagu was also declared the competitions best handballer.

  • Romanian Football in 2015

    Romanian Football in 2015

    In recent years Romanian football has been heterogeneous in terms of results and performance, and 2015 was no different from the previous years. For the national team, 2015 was an exceptional year, with the national squad getting through to EURO 2016 and climbing up to the 7th position in world rankings, an unprecedented performance in the 21st century. However, if we look at club teams, no Romanian lineup managed to reach the European competitions group stage in 2015.



    Early in 2015, the Romanian national squad was on top position in Group F as part of the qualifying rounds for EURO 2016. The first official game of 2015 was the one in Ploiesti in March, pitting the national squad against the Faeroe Islands, when the Romanians barely managed a 1-nil win. A string of no-win games followed. On June 13, the away match against Northern Ireland was a blank draw, while the game against Hungary on September 4, also away from home, ended nil-all yet again. The match against Greece in Bucharest on September 7 ended in a goalless draw as well, and a month later, also in Bucharest, Romania once again had a hard time securing a late equalizer in the fixture against Finland. The guests drew first blood on 67 minutes and managed to keep the lead late into extra time, when Ovidiu Hoban scored for Romania.



    Under the circumstances, Romanias qualification hinged on the away leg they played against the Faeroe Islands on October 11, when our national team secured a 3-nil win, came out second in group F and thus booked their ticket for EURO 2016. Northern Ireland was the leader of Group F. The Romanian national team thus added the fifth qualification for a European Championship on their record sheet, following the ones in 1984, 1992, 2000 and 2008. In the 2000 season, jointly hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands, the Romanian national team, with Emeric Jenei at the helm, reached as far as the quarterfinals, which was the national teams best performance ever in a European competition.



    For the national team, 2015 ended with a friendly against Italy in Bologna, when Romania held their opponents to a 2-all draw.



    The highlight in 2016 will be the European Championship in France. Romania is part of group A and will play its debut game on June 10, against France on Stade de France, in a fixture which is also the opener for the whole competition. Then on Parc des Princes in Paris, Romania will be pitted against Switzerland on June 15, and on June 19, the game against Albania is scheduled to take place in Lyon. The first two teams in each group as well as the best 3rd-placed team will go through to the competitions round of last 16.



    We should also note that in 2015 Romanias national squad managed yet another notable performance. In August, Romania climbed up to the 7th position in the world rankings made public by the International Federation of Association Football FIFA. It was Romanias best ranking since 1997.



    We move on to club football. For the first part of 2015, dominating domestic football was Steaua Bucharest, which won the League One championship, the League Cup and Romanias Cup. On May 20, in the League Cup final, Steaua grabbed a 3-nil win against Pandurii Targu Jiu. A week later, Steaua added the 26th champion title to their record sheet. Steauas most serious contender, ASA Targu Mures, lost the game on home turf against the domestic championships last-but-one team Otelul Galati, 1-2. Otelul had already been relegated to the second echelon.



    In Romanias Cup final in Bucharest Steaua overpowered Universitatea Cluj 3-nil, adding the 22nd Cup of Romania to their record sheet.



    Late into the 2014-2015 football season, four Romanian teams qualified for the European competitions preliminaries: Steaua qualified for the Champions League, while ASA Targu Mures, Astra Giurgiu and FC Botosani qualified for the Europa League.



    Steaua went straight to the Champions Leagues second preliminary round, where they went up against Slovak opponents Trencin, whom they defeated 2-nil, away from home, then in the second leg of the tie Steaua were outclassed by Trencin, 2-3. In the third preliminary round, Steaua took on Serbias Partizan Belgrade. Partizan qualified for the playoffs, after a 1-all draw in Bucharest and a 4-2 win in Belgrade.



    Steaua reached Europa Leagues playoffs, but were unable to move further in the competition. In the fixture against Norwegian team Rosenberg they were defeated in Bucharest, 3-nil, while in Trondheim, Steaua won the leg, 1-nil.



    Astra Giurgiu also got into Europa Leagues playoffs. In the second preliminary round, Astra outperformed Scottish contenders Inverness, with a 1-nil home win and a blank draw away from home. Astra also overpowered London team West Ham United, following a 2-all draw away from home and a 2-1 win on home turf. However, in the playoffs the Dutch team AZ Alkmaar outclassed Steaua on aggregate, after on home turf the Romanians managed a 3-2 win, but sustained a 2-nil defeat away from home.


    (translated by: Eugen Nasta)

  • SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS 2014

    SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS 2014

    SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS 2014


    It is time to review some of the highlights of the athletic year 2014. We start, of course, with January, dominated by tennis on the international scene. In Sydney, seventh seed Simona Halep, was eliminated in the first round by American player Madison Keys, and Sorana Carstea lost against Bulgarian player Tsvetana Pironkova. Then the Australian Open followed, where Simona Halep got to the quarterfinals, when Dominika Cibulkova defeated her.



    The best result in Melbourne was Horia Tecau’s qualification to the mixed finals. He played alongside Sania Mirza of India. The two, however, missed the qualification, being ousted by the pair Daniel Nestor of Canada and Kristina Mladenovic of France, 6-3, 6-2.



    Also in January, boxer Lucian Bute suffered the second defeat of his career, in Montreal, against Haitian Canadian Jean Pascal. The Haitian had the better score, and gained the NABF belt.



    In February, the biggest news was Romania’s qualification to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, scheduled to take place in Britain. Thanks to victories against Portugal, Russia, Spain and Belgium, the Romanian Oaks secured the second place in the European Nations Cup and a place in the World Cup, where they will play in Group D, alongside France, Ireland, Italy and Canada. The Romanian rugby players will make their debut in the World Cup in September 2015, playing against France on the Olympic Stadium in London.



    Also in February, in the first round of the Euro-African Group of the Davis Cup, Romania’s tennis team lost against Ukraine in Dnepropetrovsk, 1-3.



    Further south, in Soch, Russia, the Winter Olympics unfolded in their 22nd edition, and Romania was represented by 24 athletes, which unfortunately managed only modest achievements.



    After winning the Doha tournament in February, Simona Halep in March reached the semi-finals of the Indian Wells tournament, with total prizes worth 6 million dollars. She missed the qualification for the finals, losing against Polish player Agnieszka Radwanska 3-6, 4-6.



    In April, in the weightlifting championships in Tel Aviv, Romania’s representative in the 56 kg category, Florin Croitoru, got two gold medals. In the jerk event, he won lifting 122 kg, with a total of 259 kg. The pair made up by Romanian Horia Tecau and Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer in the doubles in Casablanca won one other notable victory. The two have won against the pair made up of Polish Tomasz Bednarek and Czech Lukas Dlouhy, 6-2, 6-2, in only 57 minutes. Tecau and Rojer also won in the Bucharest open, playing against the Polish pair Mariusz Fyrstenberg/ Marcin Matkowski 6-4, 6-4. In the singles, the winner was Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov, 16th seed. He won against Lukas Rosol 7-6, 6-1.



    In May, the senior and junior teams from Romania won nine medals in the European women’s rhythmic gymnastics championships, in Sofia, Bulgaria. Two of them were gold, five silver, and two bronze. The best performer was Larisa Iordache, who won a gold medal in the floor event, a silver in the beam event, and a bronze in the vault event. Add to that her decisive contribution to Romania’s victory in the finals by countries. It was the seventh European triumph for the Romanian women’s team.



    Also in May, Simona Halep qualified for the tennis finals in Roland Garros, where she lost against Maria Sharapova. In June she reached the semifinals in Wimbledon, where Canadian Eugenie Bouchard halted her advance.



    Also in June, the women’s 8+2 team won the gold medals in the European Rowing Championships in Belgrade. In the coxless pair event, Cristina Grigoras and Laura Oprea got the silver medals.

  • The Player of the Year in Romanian Football

    The Player of the Year in Romanian Football

    Although extremely gifted and very promising while playing for under twenty-one sides, many footballers later manage only lackluster shows with lesser known sides in the domestic championship or either choose to give up this career altogether. This is the story of many players in Romania. Few are those who eventually make it big in the domestic championship and in the major football events abroad. One needs more than talent in order to match the performances obtained by former football stars like Nicolae Dobrin, Gheorghe Hagi or Cristian Chivu.



    Lucian Sanmartean was given this chance at the age of 34, upon a promising career fraught with periods of inactivity due either to injuries or conflicts with coaches.



    Sanmartean took a huge leap forward in February this year, when he signed up with Steaua Bucharest, a watershed moment, which marked a series of performances that grabbed pundits’ attention, who designated him the best Romanian footballer of the year.



    Sanmartean had a considerable hand in Steaua’s winning their 25th championship title and in their qualifying for the Europa League groups. He was also the best footballer of the Romanian side during its qualifying campaign this autumn, his shows making a big difference in the matches against Finland and Northern Ireland. He put on an excellent show in the game against Hungary during the 67 minutes he was on the pitch; his replacement caused a chink in Romania’s defensive line, which was capitalized upon by the visitors who leveled the scoring a few minutes from time.



    Lucian Sanmartean was born in Bistrita, northern Romania on March 13th 1980 and made his debut in the professional football with local first-leaguer Gloria Bistrita in 1998. He became part of Romania’s under-19 lineup in 2000 and three years later he was transferred to Panathinaikos Athens in exchange for 900 thousand euros. In his first year with Panathinaikos, the Greek side won the country’s championships and Cup. Sadly he was unable to play for the following two years due to injuries and his conflict with coach Alberto Malesani. He played for a while with Dutch side Utrecht and held talks with Ajax and Eindhoven but he got injured again and had to leave Holland in 2008.



    He returned to Gloria Bistrita again but became part of FC Vaslui’s lineup back in 2011, when they managed their first qualification in the Europa League’s groups. Italian side Lazio would hire Sanmartean at a time he was still under contract with the Moldovan side, which managed to keep him until their demotion to the second league in 2013. Coach Laurentiu Reghecampf summoned him and Sanmartean soon found his place in Steaua’s lineup.



    Coach Ioan Ovidiu Sabau even described Sanmartean as the best Romanian footballer since Gica Hagi. Either we agree with this statement or not, one thing is sure — Sanmartean is Romania’s best football player in 2014.

  • Sports Highlights in 2014 (II)

    Sports Highlights in 2014 (II)

    Today we continue with the second part of our highlights in Sports Year 2014. Yesterday we ended our review with the medal Romanian women rowers got at the European Championships in Belgrade.



    Romanian tennis player Simona Halep provided the most noteworthy performances for the month of July. Halep made it to the Wimbledon semifinals, but failed to play the finals as she conceded victory to Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard. Then Halep won the WTA tournament in Bucharest and in the finals she defeated Italy’s Roberta Vinci in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3.



    Also in July matches were played counting towards Romania’s Cup in football. For the first time ever Astra Giurgiu won the trophy, securing a 6-4 win against Steaua, following the penalty shootouts. Regular time scoreboard showed Steaua were held to a 1-all draw.



    At the World Fencing Championships in Kazan, Russia, Romanian walked away with one medal, as Tiberiu Dolniceanu walked away with bronze, having qualified for the individual sabre event. In the finals, Dolniceanu was defeated by Russia’s Nikolay Kovalyov, 15 to 9.



    In early August, the Romanian Horia Tecau secured yet anther win in the ATP circuit. Pairing up with the Dutch Jean Julien Rojer, Tecau compelled recognition in the Washington tournament’s double event, since the two secured a 7-5, 6-4 win against Australian-Indian pair made of Sam Groth and Leander Paes.



    Also in August, the delegation representing Romania at the World Rowing Championships in Moscow walked away with two medals, won by Liviu Dumitrescu and Victor Mihalachi. The two won the world title in the 1,000-meter double canoe event and the silver medals in the 500-meter events. We should note, however, that no Romanian crew stepped onto the podium at the World Championships. Romania’s best crews, the coxless double scull and the eight plus one, came 4th.



    In September, Romania’s national football team played its debut match counting towards the 2016 European Championships preliminaries. In Piraeus, manager Victor Piturca’s footballers secured a 1-nil win against Greece. Also in September Romania’s tennis team assured their position in the Davis Cup’s group one — Europe/Africa after a three-one win against Sweden in Bucharest. A week later Monica Niculescu won the WTA tournament in Guangzhou, China, with 500 thousand dollars in prize money. The Romanian defeated second-seeded French challenger Alize Cornet in the finals, 6-4, 6-0. At the end of the month, Romanian-Dutch pair, made up of Horia Tecau and Julien Rojer won the doubles finals of the tournament in Shenzhen, after a 6-4, 7-6 win against Australians Sam Groth and Chris Guccione.



    In October Tecau and Rojer defeated in the finals of the Beijing tournament the pair made up of French Julien Benneteau and Canadian Vasek Pospisil, 6-7, 7-5, 10-5. The tennis tournament in Beijing had two million five hundred dollars up for grabs.


    Also in October, Larisa Iordache won two silver medals, in the individual all-round and the floor events of the gymnastics championships in Nanning, China.



    Romania’s national football side played two games in group F of Euro 2016 preliminaries. They ended in a one-all draw their game against Hungary and secured a two-nil away win against Finland.



    October ended with Simona Halep’s major performance; she made it to the WTA Finals in Singapore, where she eventually lost three-six, nil-six to Serena Williams. We recall that in the red group clash, Simona had defeated Williams six-nil, six-two. At the tournament in Valencia with prizes of roughly one million and a half euros, the Romanian – Dutch pair, Tecau-Rojer won the doubles final against South-African Kevin Anderson and French Jeremy Chardy.



    In November, Romania’s national football side made it to the first position in the Euro 2016 Qualifying Group F after a two-nil home win against Northern Ireland.



    Another notable performance was obtained by women’s handball squad HCM Baia Mare, which qualified for the Champions League, after ranking third in Group E.



    The last major competition in 2014 was the European Women’s Handball Championship hosted by Hungary and Croatia in December. Norway won the title, upon a 28-25 win in the finals against Spain, while Romania came 9th in the standings.




    —–


  • Athlete of the Week – Handball player Paula Ungureanu

    Athlete of the Week – Handball player Paula Ungureanu

    The Romanian women’s handball team on Monday clinched a 22-20 win in the game against Spain. It was Romania’s last-but-one game at the European Championship jointly hosted by Hungary and Croatia, counting towards the main Group One of the competition. The Romanian national squad, however, stand no chances to qualify for the semifinals; the team are still on the last-but-one position in the group, with 3 points and they can only hope to move to the 3rd position, provided they win this coming Wednesday’s game against Poland and on condition results in the other games turn out to be favorable for Romania. If they retain the 3rd position in the main group, Romania will be fighting for the final 5th or 6th position at the ongoing edition of the European Championship.



    Apart from the win in the game against Spain, Romania’s record so far includes two defeats in the game against Norway and Hungary, respectively, a draw against Denmark and a win in the confrontation against Ukraine. Worth mentioning is that Romania was only a whisk away from securing a win against Denmark, but also against Hungary. Each time, however, Romania’s attacking bouts stumbled towards the final part of the game.



    The Romanian national squad’s defensive compartment deserves all credit at the Euro 2014, while the defensive lineup’s number one handball player was keeper Paula Ungureanu, whom Radio Romania International has designated the Athlete of the Week.



    Paula Ungureanu was born in Brasov, central Romania, on March 30, 1980. In professional handball, she was first signed up by REMIN Deva, with which she reached as far as the Challenge Cup final in 2004. Over 2004 and 2006, Paula Ungureanu played for top-flight team Hypo Niederösterreich Vienna, one of Europe’s strongest handball teams. In 2005, Paula Ungureanu played the Champions League’s semifinals. In 2006 she was signed up by Dunaferr, the Hungarian team with which she played the EHF Cup’s semifinals in 2008. It was also in 2008 that Paula Ungureanu moved to the Croatian side Podravka Koprivnica, and in 2009 she got transferred to Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea, in Romania. In 2010, the Romanian keeper reached as far as the Champions League’s finals, while in 2012 and 2013, she played the semifinals of the same competition, also with Oltchim. At the moment, Paula Ungureanu is signed up by the Municipal Handball Club (HCM) of Baia Mare.



  • The Athlete of the Week – Gymnast Larisa Iordache

    The Athlete of the Week – Gymnast Larisa Iordache

    The Romanian gymnast Larisa Iordache this past Saturday was awarded the gold medal at the Glasgow World Cup competition. According to the final rankings, Larisa compelled recognition with a total of 59.232 points. Canada’s Elisabeth Black was on the runner-up position, with 56.232 points, while 3rd placed was Jessica Lopez of Venezuela, with 55.899 points. Worth mentioning is that Larisa Iordache got the largest number of points for her performance in each of the four apparata. Taking into account her scintillating performance in Glasgow, Radio Romania International has designated Larisa Iordache the Athlete of the Week.



    Larisa was born in Bucharest on June 19, 1996. She made her first steps in the top-flight gymnastics at the Cetate Deva National Sports High School. Later she was invited to be part of Romania’s Olympic team, currently doing their training nearby Bucharest in Izvorani. Larisa Iordache made her debut in major seniors’ competitions in Brussels in 2012. Back then she walked away with three medals, since she scooped gold in the floor event and in the nations’ competition and silver in the beam event.



    At the London Olympics in 2012, Larisa won bronze in the nations’ competition. In 2013 at the European Championship in Moscow, Larisa Iordache walked away with gold in the beam event, while in the all-round, floor and vault events she grabbed silver. Also in 2013, at the World Championship in Antwerp, Belgium, Larisa Iordache won bronze in the floor event.



    Earlier this month, Larisa Iordache was designated the 2014 Gymnast of the Year, on a par with Marius Berbecar, who is a regular of Romania’s men’s artistic gymnastics team, and Corina Constantin, double world champion in aerobic gymnastics. Bolstering Larisa Iordache’s recent nomination are the two silver medals she walked away with at the World Championships held in Nanjing, China, in the all-round and floor events. We should also note that in May 2014, Larisa Iordache’s record at the European Championships in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia included two gold medals she won in the nations’ competition and in the floor event, a silver medal she got in the beam event and a bronze medal she won in the vault event.