2020 in Sports (I)

The sporting highlights of 2020

Florin Orban, 28.12.2020, 13:45

2020 has turned out
to be quite challenging for the world of sports as well, due to restrictions
associated with the coronavirus pandemic. The Olympic Games were supposed to be
held this year, but were cancelled due to the Covid. For months, athletes were
confined to their homes, forced to train in isolation. Suspended at first,
competitions gradually resumed without the physical attendance of sports fans.

However, the
first part of the year was quite ordinary. For Romanian sports, the first
important performance came in tennis. Monica Niculescu and Misaki Doi of Japan
reached the semi-finals in the women’s doubles at the WTA tournament in
Shenzhen, China, totaling some $775 thousand in total prizes. At the winter
Olympics hosted by Switzerland, Georgeta Popescu and Andrei Nica won two gold
medals in bobsleigh events, while Ramona Ionel scooped bronze in speed skating.
The pair made up of Mihai Tentea and Ciprian Daroczi won the European Bob-2
Cup. The month of January also provided two medals in fencing. Ana-Maria
Popescu won silver at the World Championships in Havana, Cuba, then she went on
to win the gold medal in Doha, Qatar.

In February, the
Romanian Fed Cup team made up of Ana Bogdan, Gabriela Ruse and Jaqueline Cristian
failed to qualify to the Fed Cup final tournament after losing to Russia 3-2 in
Cluj. The team didn’t include Simona Halep, Irina Begu and Monica Niculescu,
who didn’t answer the call, preferring to prepare the WTA tournaments that
could secure them qualification to the Tokyo Olympics. At the European
Wrestling Championships in Rome, Italy, Romania grabbed four medals. Alin
Alexuc-Cuirariu won gold in the 130-kg Greek-Roman category. Albert Saritov won
silver in the 97-kg freestyle event. Cătălina Axente won bronze in the 72-kg
category, while Nikolai Okhlopkov also won bronze in the 61-kg freestyle
category. In tennis, Simona Halep won the Dubai tournament, offering $2.6
million in prize money. In the final, the Romanian defeated Elena Rybakina of Kzakhstan,
3-6, 6-3, 7-6. The month ended with Georgeta Coman’s win in the European
Shooting Sport Championships, our athlete winning the 10-meter air rifle event.

In March, Laura
Ioana Paar won the first WTA title in her career. Paar and Julia Wachaczyk of
Germany won 7-5, 6-3 against Lesley Kerkhove and Bibiane Schoofs of the
Netherlands in the women’s doubles final at the WTA tournament in Lyon,
totaling $275 thousand in prizes. Another Romanian, Irina Begu, won the women’s
singles at Indian Wells, a WTA tournament with $162 thousand up for grabs. In
the final Begu defeated Misaki Doi of Japan, 6-3, 6-3. The first Romanian boxer
booked his tickets for the Tokyo Olympics in March. Cosmin Gîrleanu will be
representing Romania in the 52-kg category. At the pre-Olympic tournament
hosted by London, Gîrleanu defeated Rufat Huseinov of Russia on points in the
round of 16. Qualifying to the quarterfinals thus ensured Gîrleanu will be
competing in the Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee, through
its Boxing Department, then decided to suspend the competition in London due to
the coronavirus pandemic. The highlight of March remained the postponement of
the Olympic Games in Tokyo for 2021.

The month of
April was pretty much uneventful in terms of sporting events. In May, a number
of Romanian athletes competing for the Olympics resumed training in sports
centers located in Snagov and Izvorani, north of Bucharest, in relative
isolation. Also in May the British magazine FourFourTwo drew up a ranking of
the top 100 football coaches of all times. Three Romanians were including in
the standing: Ștefan Covaci, Emeric Jenei and Mircea Lucescu. Covaci, who won
two European Champions’ Cups with Ajax Amsterdam of the Netherlands, is ranked
62. Jenei, the winner of the Champions’ Cup with Steaua Bucharest in 1986, is
in 63rd place. Finally, Mircea Lucescu, who won the UEFA Cup with
Skakhstar Donetsk of Ukraine and the European SuperCup with Galatasaray
Istanbul of Turkey, is in 87th place. The best football coach of all
times remains Sir Alex Ferguson.

In June the
2019-2020 edition of the Romanian Football League resumed, with games being
played in two groups in front of empty stands across Romania. Many matches were
delayed or even cancelled due to COVID cases being reported at various clubs.
The winner of the football title was decided in the second part of the year,
but we’re going to talk about that in the second part of our roundup of the
sports highlights of 2020. (V. Palcu)