Sports Roundup

The latest from table tennis, rugby, basketball and football

Florin Orban, 28.02.2022, 13:45

Romanian table tennis player Bernadette Szőcs came
in 3rd at the Europa Top-16 tournament in Montreux, Switzerland. In
the semifinals, Szocs was defeated by German challenger Ying Han, 4-nil. A 2018
champion, also in Montreux, Bernadette Szőcs was for the 8th time
taking part in the competition that brings together Europe’ s top-flight women table
tennis players. We recall that in Thessalonica in 2021, Szocs was 3rd-placed
and 2nd-placed, in 2019.

Romania’ s national rugby squad has dramatically
decreased its chances to secure a straight qualification to the World Cup 2023.
This past Sunday, the Romanian national team sustained a 28-31 defeat by Spain. The latter team scored no less than 5 tries. Romania had a poor
run on the pitch, with flaws galore, in the defensive game but also in the handling
of the ball, mostly in the first half. Romania scored three tries, of which two
by Hinckley Vaovasa and one by Marius Simionescu. Romania’s
Ionel Melinte successfully converted the team’s first try, while Daniel Plai converted
the text two. Qualifying straight to the 2023 edition of the World Cup are the
first two teams of the 2021 and 2022 rankings all told. The third-placed team
plays the repechage. If they still want to keep their hopes alive for a straight
qualification, on March the 12 in Bucharest the Romanians must defeat the competition’s
best team, Georgia.

For the seventh time Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe has won
Romanian Cup in women’s basketball. In this past Sunday’s final
against Municipal Satu Mare, Sepsi
won, 59-53. Holders Sepsi made the difference in the last fifteen minutes
of play. When the score board displayed a 52-53 advantage for Satu Mare, Sepsi scored
seven points in a row in the last 95 seconds of play.

Matches counting towards the 28th round of
the regular football season were played at the weekend. On Friday in Arad, UTA
defeated Academica Clinceni, 2-nil, while on home turf, Universitatea Craiova
defeated Chindia Târgoviște, 1-nil. In Medias on Saturday, Gaz
Metan sustained a 3 defeat by FC U Craiova. In Sfântu Gheorghe, CFR Cluj secured a 2-nil win against Sepsi. In the 28th
round’s derby that pitted Rapid Bucharest against Dinamo the score was 1-all. On
Sunday, the game pitting FC Arges against FC Voluntari ended in a blank draw. FC
Botosani were also held by CS Mioveni to a blank draw. The 28th round’s surprise was provided by Farul
Constanta, the team that succeeded a 2-nil away win against FCSB. Two rounds ahead of the closing of the regular season, CFR Cluj are at
the top of the table, with 70 points, FCSB are 2nd-placed with 59
points.

(EN)