Category: Sport

In the women’s final on Saturday, world no. 6 Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic defeated Eugenie Bouchard of Canada 6-3, 6-0 to win her second Wimbledon title. The most successful Romanian player at these championships, Simona Halep, made it as far as the semi-finals, where she was defeated by Eugenie Bouchard in two sets, 7-6, 6-2.

That is why Radio Romania International designated Simona Halep the Athlete of the Week. Following her run at Wimbledon, Simona Halep will receive 440,000 pounds and 780 WTA points. Simona Halep was born on September 27, 1991, in the southern Romanian city of Constanta. She made her debut in professional tennis, in 2006, when she played her first matches in the ITF circuit. In 2010, Simona made it to top 100. The progress she made was amazing, as in 2013 her record included 53 wins and 17 defeats, as well as six WTA tournaments. Simona emerged as winner is the Nurnberg, s’ Hertogenbosch and Budapest tournaments, also winning the tournaments in New Haven, Moscow, and Sofia.

Simona’s notable challenger to the Athlete of the Week title this week has been another Romanian tennis player, Irina Begu, who won the ITF tournament in the French town of Contrexeville, with 100,000 prize money up for grabs. In the finals, Irina defeated the main favorite to winning the tournament, Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi, 6-3, 6-4.

This week, Simona Halep and Irina Begu will be joining other top-flight tennis players from Romania and from abroad, since Romania’s capital city Bucharest will play host, for the first time, to a WTA tournament, with 250,000 dollars prize money at stake. Simona Halep is the tournament’s main favorite and will be playing in the first round on Wednesday, when she will be taking on Kristina Mladenovic of France.

The Romanian school of gymnastics has for years been known as on one of the world’s most valuable. Gymnastics centers in Deva, Onesti and Bucharest have for a long time been genuine breeding grounds for European and world champions, such as Nadia Comaneci, Ecaterina Szabo, Andreea Raducan and Sandra Izbasa, who have constantly grabbed the headlines in international sports publications.

Less known though are the successes obtained by Romanian athletes in aerobic gymnastics. Last week, gymnasts from Romania walked away with three gold and two bronze medals from the Sport Aerobics World Cup held in the Bulgarian town of Borovet.

Romanian Oana Corina Constantin reaped the gold medal in the women’s contest in Borovet, where Bianca Beczec, also from Romania, came third. Mircea Zamfir ended in the third place of the men’s contest. Anca Claudia Surdu, Andrea Bogati and Oana Corina Constantin have placed Romania on the first position of the trio section, while a team made up of Bianca Maria Gorgovan, Anca Claudia Surdu, Oana Corina Constantin, Andreea Bogati and Maria Bianca Benczec obtained the first place in the finals. The next World Cup leg will take place in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, over May 16th and 18th.

Now let’s move on to artistic gymnastics, as Bulgarian capital Sofia will this week be playing venue for the 30th edition of the European Women’s Gymnastics Championships. We recall the first edition of this prestigious event was hosted by Bucharest back in 1957. Also worth noting is the fact that Romania is the team with most of the titles won in European senior tournaments. The favourites of the Romanian team in the upcoming competition are Larisa Iordache and Diana Bulimar.

Few of today’s Romanian football players still remember the greatest achievement in Romanian football, which took place 28 years ago, more precisely on the 7th of May 1986. Many of them were in the cradle or not even born when Steaua Bucharest won the European Champions Cup after a dramatic final against Barcelona. Helmut Duckadam, Stefan Iovan, Adrian Bumbescu, Miodrag Belodedic, Ilie Barbulescu, Victor Piturca, Ladislau Boloni, Stefan Majearu, Lucian Balan, Marius Lacatus, Marin Radu and Aghel Iordanescu were part of Steaua’s winning team, which had Emerich Jenei as manager, assisted by Anghel Iordanescu.

Unfortunately, the team captain, Tudorel Stoica, the man who had a major contribution to the qualification campaign, missed the final. For those who don’t remember this game in 1986, the clash in Seville against Barcelona, who was cheered by 50,000 fans, was a difficult challenge for Steaua, who had, however, a very tactical game.

Steaua defended for most of the time, while Barcelona missed a lot of goal scoring opportunities. The game went in extra time, but still no goal was scored on either side. The miracle occurred during the penalty shootouts, when Steaua’s goal keeper, Helmut Duckadam defended all four of Barcelona’s kicks. Few people still remember that Barcelona’s goal keeper, the late Javier Urruticoechea, also defended two kicks, a rare achievement at this level.

Many of the players who contributed to Steaua’s success in Seville are sadly no longer with us today, such as Ion Alexandrescu, the head of the football department of the Steaua Army Football Club. The members of Steaua’s golden generation are today coaches and managers themselves, some even having notable results. Perhaps the most successful of them is Victor Piturca, the current manager of Romania’s national team. During his tenure, Romania qualified to two European Football Championships.

Each year, Romania’s capital hosts a tennis tournament as part of the ATP 250 calendar. Until recently, the open air clay court competition was held in September, but starting in 2012 it was moved to the end of April. This year’s edition, called the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy, with 426,605 Euros in prize money, ended on Sunday. The winner was Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov, ranked 16th in the world, who won against Czech player Lukas Rosol, last year’s winner, in two sets, 7-6, 6-1.

The doubles part of the tournament was won by Romanian Horia Tecau and Dutch player Jean-Julien Rojer, defeating the Polish couple Mariusz Fyrstenberg/ Marcin Matkowski 6-4, 6-4. Horia Tecau can now boast 19 ATP wins in the doubles. Three of them have been won this year alongside Rojer in Zagreb, Casablanca and Bucharest.

One of this week’s attractions was the friendly game played on Saturday night by Cedric Pioline, former 5th in the world, Goran Ivanisevic, former second, Andrei Pavel, the best Romanian player of the new millennium, and Ilie Nastase, former world champion, the greatest Romanian tennis player of all time.

Pioline paired with Ivanisevic against Pavel and Nastase. The Romanians emerged victorious, 6-2, 3-3, and a tie break won by 2 points.

Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov, seed 16 in the world won the finals of the singles competition with a 7-6, 6-1 win against last year’s winner Lukas Rosol from the Czech Republic. The trophy in the doubles contest went to the Romanian-Dutch pair Tecau — Rojer who outperformed in the finals a Polish pair made up of Mariusz Frystenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-4, 6-4.

For this performance in the BRD tennis tournament, Radio Romania International has designated Tecau, Athlete of the Week. We interviewed him shortly after the game and he told us: “I’m very happy I was able to win again this title in Bucharest, this time with a new partner. Playing and winning in this arena gives me a special feeling. I was very excited to see how many supporters I had during the game, family members and all, as this is the only place where I could play in front of them. Most of my games take place in cities around the world where you can get the support of two-three people, if you’re lucky…There aren’t many tournaments that manage to get so many people for a doubles game but I see it has quite become a tradition here to have plenty of spectators for the doubles games and I’m glad to see that…It’s great to play in a game and even greater to win.”

Horia Tecau’s prize closet includes 19 victories in ATP tournaments, all in doubles contests. He won three of them together with Rojer in Zagreb, Casablanca and Bucharest.

Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov, seed 16 in the world won the finals of the singles competition with a 7-6, 6-1 win against last year’s winner Lukas Rosol from the Czech Republic. The trophy in the doubles contest went to the Romanian-Dutch pair Tecau — Rojer who outperformed in the finals a Polish pair made up of Mariusz Frystenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-4, 6-4.

For this performance in the BRD tennis tournament, Radio Romania International has designated Tecau, Athlete of the Week. We interviewed him shortly after the game and he told us: “I’m very happy I was able to win again this title in Bucharest, this time with a new partner. Playing and winning in this arena gives me a special feeling. I was very excited to see how many supporters I had during the game, family members and all, as this is the only place where I could play in front of them. Most of my games take place in cities around the world where you can get the support of two-three people, if you’re lucky…There aren’t many tournaments that manage to get so many people for a doubles game but I see it has quite become a tradition here to have plenty of spectators for the doubles games and I’m glad to see that…It’s great to play in a game and even greater to win.”

Horia Tecau’s prize closet includes 19 victories in ATP tournaments, all in doubles contests. He won three of them together with Rojer in Zagreb, Casablanca and Bucharest.

Forty years have passed since the Romanian men’s national handball team won the world title. We proudly recall that on March 10, 1974 in Berlin, Romania succeeded a most precious 14-12 win against the then German Democratic Republic, in the World Championship finals. It was the fourth time when Romania’s national handball team proved they were the best in the world.

A first time for such a feat had occurred in 1961 in West Germany, then the Romanians proved their mettle for a second time around in Czechoslovakia, in 1964. A landmark in Romanians’ blazing trail was the world title they won in France, in 1970. So the Romanians’ fourth title in Berlin was the closing episode for a golden age in Romanian handball. Those times have hitherto been unparalleled.

The veterans of Romanian handball’s golden generation these days once again got together in Bucharest. Their purpose was to celebrate their past victories. Also, the handball veterans met to commemorate those who passed away. Former manager Nicolae Nedef couldn’t possibly miss the event, since he was the one who lead the national team all the way up to winning the world title no less than four times.

Also attending the event was General Cornel Otelea, a three-times world champion, in 1961, 1964 and 1970. Four of the former handball players were world champions in 1961 and 1964. They were Petre Ivănescu, Ioan Moser, Olimpiu Nodea and Mircea Costache II. Then there were Gheorghe Gruia, Cezar Nica and Ion Popescu, all four world champions in 1964 and 1970. Also, part of the team that walked away with the world title in 1970 were Gheorghe Goran, Valentin Samungi, Mihail Marinescu and Titus Moldovan.

We simply cannot leave out Cristian Gatu, Cornel Penu, Roland Gunesch, Stefan Birtalan, Gabriel Kicsid and Stefan Orban. All of them were world champions in 1970 and 1974. Joining them were Werner Stockl, Radu Voina, Constantin Tudosie, Dan Marin, Mircea Grabovschi, Liviu Bota and Mircea Stef. They were part of the line-up that won the world title in 1974.

On Tuesday, the aforementioned handball players took part in a press conference in Bucharest. They could not avoid the sensitive issue of Romanian handball’s ongoing crisis. Poor determination and lack of patriotism were, according to Petre Ivanescu, the main problems Romanian handball is facing at the moment. Nicolae Nedef, on the other hand, raised the issue of the low status sports is granted in Romania’s secondary education curricula.

Several top former and present club managers along with agents and even a former top player, Gheorghe Popescu, are already incarcerated for corruption. This time around, magistrates have started targeting the management of top football organizations. Former chairman of the Professional Football League Dumitru Dragomir is under criminal investigation for his alleged involvement in television rights for games in the First Football League between 2011 and 2013.

According to a press release from the Bucharest Tribunal Prosecutor’s Office, quoted by Agerpres new agency, the evidence in the case makes it reasonable to conclude that 3 million Euros were embezzled from the League, through a ghost circuit of intermediaries in the business of selling rights for football matches to be televised. The real sale had occurred through direct negotiations between the League and the contracting company. Also, the source indicates that there is information showing that the money was laundered through a ring of companies. Dragomir has been released pending the investigation, while two businesspeople also involved in the affair have been placed under preventive detention for 30 days.

The head of the Romanian Football Federation, Razvan Burleanu, may also be on the National Anti-Corruption Directorate’s target list. The sports director of the federation, Daniel Prodan, filed a complaint against him in relation to land purchases. However, the complaint comes against the conflict between the chairman and the former international player in relation to the latter’s handling of junior teams, which may result in his getting fired without compensation. Little can be said about that before the National Anti-Corruption Directorate decides to pursue the case, however.

Last week the 7th gymnastics World Cup competition came to an end in Doha, totaling 50,000 dollars in prize money. Larisa Iordache had an outstanding performance, grabbing three gold medals, in the vault, floor and beam events. On the first day of the competition, Iordache grabbed gold in the vault event, with an average score of 14,337 points on her two jumps, outclassing Teja Belak of Slovenia, who ranked second with 14,100 points and Wong Hiu Angel of Hong Kong with 13,812 points.

On the second day of the competition Larisa continued her good run. She prevailed in the floor finals with a score of 14,425 points, and was followed onto the podium by her colleague Diana Bulimar with 14,300 points and Isabela Onyshko of Canada with 13,725 points. In the beam finals, the judges gave Iordache a score of 14,850 points. Ranking second was Mary-Anne Monckton of Australia with 14,700 points, while Thi Ha Thanh Phan of Vietnam came in third with 13,875 points.

Apart from the silver medal in the floor finals, Diana Bulimar also ranked 4th in the beam event. In the men’s competition, Andrei Muntean finished the still rings event in 4th place.

For her remarkable achievement last week, we have designated Larisa Iordache Athlete of the Week on RRI.

Larisa Iordache was born in Bucharest on June 19, 1996. She took up gymnastics at the Cetate Sports High School in Deva. She joined Romania’s Olympic team, with which she has been training at a facility close to Bucharest. She made her international debut at the 2012 European Championships, where she grabbed three medals: gold in the floor event, gold with Romania’s team and silver in the beam event. At the 2012 London Olympics Iordache won bronze with Romania’s team. In 2013, at the Moscow European Championships, she won gold in the beam event and silver medals in the individual all-around, floor and vault events. Also in 2013, at the World Championships in Antwerp, she won bronze in the floor finals.