Radio Romania International Sports club

The European Youth Olympic Festival in Maribor, Slovenia

Florin Orban, 02.08.2023, 13:45

The Slovenian city of Maribor for a week running
was the capital of athletes from all over Europe. The European Youth Olympic
Festival brought together Europe’s hopefuls in a great number of sports disciplines,
ranging from athletics to swimming, from handball to judo. To Slovenia, Romania
sent a 92-strong delegation of athletes who competed in 9 sports disciplines.
The Romanian delegation’s final record was made of 20 medals, so Romania came
in 4th according to the nations’ competition. Of the gold medals,
five were won by swimmers. Robert Badea won the 200m and 400m mixed events, Aissia
Prisăcariu won the 200m backstroke event, while Daria Silişteanu won gold in
the 100m backstroke. Added to that
was the women’s relay team that won the 4 by 100m freestyle, In judo, Tudor Mosoiu won in the 60-kilogram
category, while David Gliga walked home with gold in the 73-kilogram category. In
athletics, gold went to women’s mixed relay team (100+200+300+400 meters) and
to Alin Şavlovschi, in the 2, 000m steeplechase.

14-year-old swimmer Daria Silişteanu is a national record holder in the 50m backstroke event. In
Maribor, Daria won the gold medal twice. Here is what Daria told upon her
return to Romania, sounding upbeat about the Romanian delegation’s results in Maribor.

Us, swimmers, walked away with quite a few medals. In
athletics but also in handball quite a few medals were won as well. I am happy
with the result, especially in the 100m backstroke. I really wasn’t expecting
that, I listened to my coach, he said I can have a more powerful start, I took
my chance, he said I can finish the race quite fine and I swam as powerfully as
I could.

Six silver medals were also won in Maribor. In tennis, Giulia Popa won,
in the women’s singles, also securing a win in the women’s doubles, alongside Alexia
Tatu. In men’s doubles, Yannick Alexandrescu and Alejandro Nourescu walked away
with silver. In the 400m hurdles, Ştefania Uţă won silver as well. In gymnastics, silver went to Alexia
Vănoagă in the beam event. Also silver went to women’s national handball team. The
bronze medals went to swimmers Darius Coman, in the 100m 200m breaststroke and to
Andrei Proca in the 1, 500m freestyle event. Athletes Alexandra Hudea in the 3,000m race and Cristian Popescu, in the
long-jump event, also walked away with bronze.