Athlete of the week

Shot-put athlete Rares Toader

Eugen Nasta, 11.03.2025, 13:45

Romanian athletics in recent years has seen significant progress. In the wake of almost a decade marred by lackluster performance, Romanian athletics has seen a vigorous comeback, and medals kept pouring in.
At the recent indoor championships hosted by the city of Apeldoorn in the Low Countries, the Romanian athletes twice stepped on a step of the podium, just as they did in 2023 in Istanbul.

We recall in Turkey, in 2023, Claudia Bobocea walked away with silver in the 1,500m race and Gabriel Botan won bronze in the long-jump event.
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n Apeldoorn, the Romanian shot-put athlete Rares Toader won gold, while Diana Ion won silver, in the triple jump event.
Reason enough for Radio Romania International to designate Rareş Toader the Athlete of the week.

2005 was the year when a Romanian athlete last won a medal in an indoor athletics championship. We recall back then Elena Antoci, nee Buhăianu, won gold in the 1,500m race, so Rares Toader’s new European gold medal has come as a stunning surprise.

Ahead of the contest, the Romanian technical staff’ hopes were far from buoyant. Realistically, they predicted the 4th to 6th position for their athletes, according to the final ranking, and two other qualifications in the finals.

Notwithstanding, and taking the most recent performances into account, Rares Toader stood real chances to get a good result, just as his head-coach, Oana Pantelimon, said in an interview. We recall Pantelimon was a bronze medalist in Sydney, in 2000. Rares was the holder of the national record, with a throw of 21 meters and 21 centimetres, a performance the Romanian succeeded in February in Ostrava, the Czech Republic. We recall in Ostrava Rares Toader was the runner-up athlete, being second only to Italy’s Zane Weir, who succeeded a jaw-dropping throw of 21 meters and 39 centimeters.

Also in February, as part of the Balkan Championships in Belgrade, Rares Toader won gold, with a throw of 20 meters and 89 centimeters. Time came for the European indoor championships. In the shot-put final, Rares advanced from the 4th position, with a throw of 20 meters and 59 centimeters. However, in the final, Rares Toader succeeded a throw of 21 meters 27 centimeters, that is 23 centimeters better than the event’s runner-up athlete, Sweden’s Wictor Petersson. Rare’s result also was a new national record.

Andrei Rareş Toader was born in Râmnicu Vâlcea on May 26, 1997. He currently competes for Dinamo Bucharest where his training is supervised by former discus thrower head coach Nicoleta Grasu, a many-time medalist in World and European Championships in the last decade of this century.