The Year 2023 in sports (II)

A lookback at Romanian athletes' most notable performance in 2023

Florin Orban, 04.01.2024, 13:45

Romanian
athletes in 2023 have been shifting their focus to securing their qualification
to the Paris Olympics.

We recall that in June 2023, at the European Games in
Krakow, Romania won 17 medals, of which 6 were gold, 6 silver and 5 bronze.

In July 2023, Monica Niculescu
and Japan’s Eri Hozumi advanced to the women’s’ doubles final as part of the
WTA tennis tournament in Bad Homburg, where they sustained a nil-6, 6-7 defeat by Lidia Morozova of the Belarus and Ingrid
Gamarra Martins of Brazil.

For the second consecutive year, Transylvanian
team Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe won Romania’s Supercup in football. In the final hosted
by a stadium in Ploiesti, Sepsi defeated holders Farul Constanța 1-nil.

Romanian climber Horia Colibășanu succeeded
yet another great performance. Horia reached the top of Broad Peak of the Karakorum
massif, on the Pakistani-Chinese border, at a height of 8, 051 meters. It was
the 10th over-8,000 meters peak Horia Colibasanu has climbed in his
career.

Also in July, Ana Bogdan won the WTA 125 tennis
tournament in Iasi, an event with 100, 000 Euro in prize money all told. In the
final, Bogdan defeated a fellow Romanian, Irina Begu, 6-2, 6-3, winning the
tournament in Iasi for the second year running. Wrapping up the month of July
were the World Swimming Championships in Japan’s Fukukoa. In high-diving, Constantin
Popovici won gold, while Cătălin Preda, silver.

In August 2023, tennis
player Monica Niculescu proved she deserved to be among the world’s top women’s
doubles tennis players. Pairing up with Alexa Guarachi
of Chile, Monica reached as far as the final of the WTA 500 tournament in Washington,
an event with 780,000 USD up for grabs. In the final, Monica and Alexa were
defeated by the German-Russian pair made of Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva,
6-4, 6-4.

As part of the World Athletics Championships
in Budapest, Alina Rotaru-Kottmann won the bronze medal in the long-jump event,
with a jump of 6 meters and 88 de centimeters. The performance was the career-best
of Alina, who is signed up by Steaua Bucharest sports club. At the Canoe Sprint World
Championships in Duisburg, also in August, Catalin Chirila won gold in the men’s
C1 500m race, then Catalin went on to win silver the 1,000m race, an Olympic event.
Catalin Chirila also secured his qualification
to the 2024 edition of the Olympic Games in Paris.

In men’s double canoe,
Oleg Nuță and Ilie Sprincean won bronze in the 1, 000m race. The two came in
6th in the 500m race, an Olympic event, booking their tickets for Paris 2024.

In September, Sorana Cîrstea advanced to
the quarterfinals of the US Open. However, Sorana was unable to reach the
semifinals since she sustained a defeat by Czech challenger Karolína Muchová, 6-nil,
6-3. Ana Bogdan won the WTA 125 tournament in
Parma, an event with 100,000 Euro in prize money. 2nd-seeded Bogdan
defeated top-seeded challenger, Slovakia’s Anna
Karolina Schmiedlova, 7-5, 6-1.

At the World Canoe Championship in
Belgrade, Romania came in 4th in the nations’ competition, after The
Netherlands, Great Britain and Italy. Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radiș won gold
in the women’s pair. Also gold won the coxed eight crew. A silver medal went to
the women’s coxless four. A bronze medal went to the women’s double oars crew.
Also bronze went to the women’s lightweight double sculls crew.

In the European Table Tennis Championship
in Malmoe, Sweden, Romania’s women’s team walked away with silver. In the final
Germany outclassed Romania, 3-nil.

Attention-grabbing
this past fall was the World Rugby Cup in France. Romania lost all four games
it played. In the debut fixture, Romanian was trounced by Ireland, 82 – 8. South Africa also defeated Romania 76-nil. Romania also
lost to Scotland, nil-84. The only game where the Romanian national team
mattered was the match against Tonga, where Romania lost, 24- 45.

In October 2023, Romania’s women’s gymnastics team reclaimed its place among
the Olympic-level teams. At the World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, the
team secured their qualification to the Paris Olympics. In the individual
event, best-placed was Sabrina Maneca – Voinea, who
came in 4th in the floor finals.

The year’s most important tennis tournament
held in Romania, the women’s WTA 250 Transylvania Open, an event with 260,000
USD in prize money was held in Cluj-Napoca.

Of the Romanians,
best-placed was Elena Gabriela Ruse who advanced to the final, where she
sustained a 6-3, 6-4 defeat by Tamara Korpatsch of Germany.

In November 2023,
Romania’s women’s tennis team grabbed a 4-nil away win against Serbia. The
confrontation counted towards Billie Jean King Cup’s playoffs.

In football, the
most notable feat was the national team’s qualification to EURO 2024. The national squad succeeded a no-defeat record in Group I.
In the last fixture, Romanian grabbed a 1-nil win against Switzerland, a team
that also secured its qualification on the runner-up position. Romania’s national
team plays in the European Championship’s final tournament for the sixth time.
We recall Romania had also participated in the competition in 1984, 1996, 2000,
2008 and 2016.

Over November 9
and December 14, the IHF World Women’s Handball Championship was jointly hosted by Denmark,
Norway and Sweden. In Denmark’s
Herning, France defeated Norway in the final, 31 to 28. Romania’s national
squad came in12th, thus failing to secure its participation to the 2024 edition
of the Olympic Games.

In chess, Grand master Bogdan Deac walked away with
bronze at the European Blitz Chess Championship in Zagreb. Deac got 9 points in 11 matches, being outclassed by Russian Grand master, 23-year-old
Alexey Sarana, who competes for Serbia and who won the European title with 9.5
points, Silver went to Armenian Grand Master Haik Martirosyan, also with 9 points.