Athlete of the Week on RRI – Wrestler Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu

The Romanian wrestler won the Greek-Roman event in his category

Florin Orban, 11.05.2021, 13:45

Last week
the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, played host to a pre-Olympic wrestling
tournament. All athletes who reached the finals booked their tickets to the
Tokyo Olympics in the categories of their choice. Three Romanian athletes have
also secured qualification on this occasion: Albert Saritov in the 97-kg
category, Andreea Ana in the 53-kg category, both in the freestyle event, and
Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu in the 130-kg category, in the Greek-Roman event. Of the
three, only Alexuc-Ciurariu won the event, which is why we have designated him
Athlete of the Week on RRI.

In the pre-Olympic
tournament, Alexuc defeated Alimkhan Syzdykov of Kazakhstan in the round of 16.
In the quarterfinals he knocked out Arata Sonoda of Japan and won against Rafal
Krajewski of Poland in the semis. In the final, the Romanian was due to wrestle
Elias Kousmanen of Finland, but was awarded a walkover win after the Finnish wrestler
didn’t compete.

Alin
Alexuc-Ciurariu is a member of Dinamo Bucharest sports club. He was born in Botoşani
and turned 31 on February 3, 2021. In Rome, in 2020, he grabbed the biggest
performance of his career, scooping the European gold in the 130-kg category.
He previously won bronze medals at the European championships of 2018 in Kaspiysk,
Russia, and in 2019 in Bucharest. In April, 2021, at the European championships
in Warsaw, Poland, he was defeated in the quarterfinals, and then lost in the requalifying
phase as well. He took part in the last two editions of the Olympic Games. In
2016 in Rio, he came very close to winning bronze. (V.P.)