Sports Weekend

A look at the weekend's most important sporting events

Florin Orban, 21.12.2018, 13:49

Romanian athlete Ramona Andries
came second in the 49 kilogram category of the World Weightlifting Cup in Doha,
Qatar. In the snatch event Andries managed to lift 86 kilograms being
outperformed by Chinese Rong Zhang with 92.

The Romanian also went second in
the jerk contest with 101 kilograms being defeated by Zhang who also won the
total competition with 195 kilograms. Andries also came second in the total
event with 187 kilograms. The Romanian athlete has thus gathered important points
for a place in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 as the contest in Doha was one of the
qualifying stages for the world’s most prestigious sporting event.

The Romanian women’s volleyball
side CSM Bucharest conceded a 3-0 defeat on their own ground to the Russian
side Dinamo Moscow on Thursday in a game counting towards the Champions
League’s group E. The game on Thursday was CSM’s second game in the group after
the one they ended in a 3-1 win against Polish side Chemik Police.

The Romanians will be playing their
next game on January 23rd when they are to take on Fenerbahce
Istanbul in an away game. The Turkish side tops the group E’s ranking with 6
points, followed by Dinamo Moscow with 3 points, CSM with the same number of
points and the Polish side with no point.

Romania’s national football side is
to end the year on the 24th position in the International Football
Federation’s ranking published on Thursday. This is the highest position the
Romanian side has obtained since 2016. At the beginning of the year our
footballers were ranking 40th, but went up in the standings after
winning 7 out of the 10 international games they played in 2018 and drawing
another three. Out of Romania’s future opponents in the EURO 2020 qualifiers,
Spain is ranking 9th, Sweden 14th, Norway 46th,
the Faeroe Islands 98th and Malta 182nd. Belgium tops the
ranking followed by the world champions, France, and by Brazil.

This week has seen the games of the
21st leg of Romania’s first football league, the last this year. The
first game took place on Wednesday. In Craiova, local side Universitatea
secured a 2-0 win against Gaz Metan Medias. On Thursday, FC Botosani clinched a
1-0 win against Dunarea Calarasi, while in Giurgiu, southern Romania, local
team Astra obtained a 4-1 win against Dinamo Bucharest.

Two matches have been scheduled for
Friday, Poli Iasi versus FC Voluntari and Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe is up against
Concordia Chiajna.

Saturday will be seeing the leg’s
last games this year. In Cluj, local eleven Hermannstadt will be taking on
Viitorul Constanta. The National Arena in Bucharest will be hosting the game
pitching local side FCSB against CFR Cluj, which is topping the ranking at
present with 43 points. FCSB comes next with 40 points, but if the latter wins
at a difference of at lest two goals, they are to end the year on the first
position in the ranking.