Sports roundup

The latest from athletics, rugby and football

Florin Orban, 18.07.2022, 01:45

Romanian athlete Bianca Ghelber has come in 4th in the hammer throw final this past Sunday as part of the World Athletics Championships held in Eugene, Oregon, the USA. Bianca succeeded a 72-meter 26-centimeter throw. The gold medal went to US athlete Brooke Andersen, with a throw of 78 meters and 96 centimeters. We recall that in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics Bianca also came in 4th. Back then Bianca Ghelber’s 74-meter 18-centimetre throw was also a personal record for the Romanian.

Romania’s national rugby team this past Sunday sustained a 20 to 26 defeat by Uruguay, in Montevideo. Los Teros thus took their revenge as a week ago Romania grabbed a 30-22 win against their opponents, also in Montevideo. Romania succeeded two tries, a penalty kick and another one, scored by Marius Simionescu. Gabriel Rupanu successfully converted both tries. Also scoring for Romania were Gabriel Rupanu and Mihai Muresan, who converted penalty kicks.

This past weekend saw the start of a new League One football season. As of 2022, the domestic championship is labelled the Superleague. In Medias on Friday, the recently-promoted FC Hermannstadt grabbed a 3-nil win against CS Mioveni. In the second fixture on Friday, in Craiova, Universitatea drew against Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe, 2-all. On Saturday, in Pitesti, FC Arges defeated UTA Arad, 2-nil. Then in Cluj, defending champions CFR succeeded a hard-fought win against Rapid Bucharest, 1-nil. We should note that a couple of seconds from time, CFR’s goalie Cristian Bălgrădean saved Alexandru Albu’s penalty kick. On Sunday, in Ovidiu, in the south-east, Farul Constanța grabbed a 2-1 win against FC U Craiova. On the National Arena in Bucharest, Romania’s vice-champions, FCSB, drew against newly-promoted Universitatea Cluj, 1-all. In the round’s last two games on Monday, FC Botoșani face Chindia Târgoviște, while Petrolul Ploiești are pitted against FC Voluntari.

Until the Superleague’s next round this coming weekend, four Romanian football teams play in the Conference League’s second preliminary round. FCSB plays an away fixture against Georgian opponents Saburtalo. Then on home turf, CFR Cluj takes on Inter d’Escaldes of Andorra. In Sfantu Gheorghe, Sepsi are pitted against Slovenia’s Olimpija Ljubljana. Universitatea Craiova travel to Albania for a game against Albanian team Vilaznia. (EN)