Sports Year 2015 (1)

A look back at the most important sporting events of 2015

România Internațional, 04.01.2016, 13:14

2015 comes to an end, time for us to take a look back at Romanians sports performances this year. It was quite a good year, especially when it comes to team sports. The national football team booked their ticket for EURO 2016, the national rugby team had a good run at the World Cup in England, while the womens national handball team stepped onto the podium at the recently-held World Championships in Denmark.

We begin with tennis, since WTA 2nd placed Romanian tennis player Simona Halep compelled recognition in the Shenzhen WTA tennis tournament, overpowering Swiss contender Timea Bacsinsky in the final in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2. Simona Halep also got through to the womens singles quarterfinals of the years first Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open. In the mens doubles version of the same competition, two Romanians also reached as far as the quarterfinals, Horia Tecau, pairing up with the Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer, and Florin Mergea, who paired up with the British Dominic Inglot. Tecau and Rojer made headway into the semifinals, but they lost to Italys Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini. However, the Shenzhen tournament offered Tecau the opportunity to have a similar performance as the one in the mens doubles in the Melbourne tournament in 2012, when he also played in the semifinals, pairing up with Swedens Robert Lindstedt.

In February 2015, the first great performance of the month also came from tennis, since Romanias womens team qualified for the playoff stage of the Fed Cups World Group. We recall that in the eastern Romanian city of Galati, our team outperformed Spain, 3-2. In the first singles fixture, Halep defeated Silvia Soler Espinosa, 6-2, 6-2, while Garbine Muguruza defeated Irina Begu, 6-3, 6-2. Then Muguruza secured yet another win over Halep, 6-4, 6-3, but fortunately Irina Begu braced up and won the game against Silvia Soler Espinosa, 6-2, 6-4. The doubles confrontation proved crucial, with Irina Begu and Monica Niculescu happily grabbing a win against Garbine Muguruza and Anabel Medina-Garrigues, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.

The tennis tournament in Rotterdam was also held in February. Early into 2015, it was one of the most important ATP tournaments, with almost one million and a half Euro prize money up for grabs. Romanian Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands won the doubles version of the tournament, securing a 3-6, 6-3, 10-8 win over the British-Australian pair made of Jamie Murray and John Peers.

Late in February Simona Halep scored yet another success, since she secured a 6-4, 7-6 win over Czech contender Carolina Pliskova in the finals of the Dubai tournament, with 2,513, 000 dollars prize money at stake.

In March 2015, Romania secured its comeback among the elite nations of European athletics following a four-year gap. At the European Indoor Championships in Prague, Florentina Marincu walked away with bronze in the long-jump event, and also the bronze medal went to veteran Marian Oprea in the triple jump event. Florentina Marincus 6 meters and 79 centimeters jump also landed a European juniors record.

In April, Romania won two medals at the European Gymnastics Championships held in Montpellier, France. In the womens version of the competition, Andreea Munteanu won gold in the beam event, while in mens version of the same competition Marius Berbecar won silver in the even parallel bars event.

Also in April 2015, Romanias womens tennis team got through to the Fed Cups World Group, securing a 3-2 win over Canada. The match was hosted by Canadas Montreal, and in the first fixtures Alexandra Dulgheru secured a 6-4, 6-4 win over the worlds number 7 Eugenie Bouchard, while Francoise Abanda secured a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 win in the game against Irina Begu. Andreea Mitu secured yet another win in the match against Eugenie Bouchard, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, while Alexandra Dulgherus 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 win in the game against Francoise Abanda sealed Romanias win in the fixture against Canada.

Rowing also brought the Romanians a string of medals, since in May 2015, Romania walked away with no less than 4 medals at the European kayak-canoe Championships held in the Czech Republic. The gold medal in the 1,000m double kayak event went to Roxana Borha and Elena Meroniac, who also won silver in the 500m event. Silver medals also went to Florentina Caminescu in the 1,000m simple kayak event and to Romanias mens crew in the 1,000m four-canoe event.

We carry on with news form handball, as the Romanian handball player Cristina Neagu won the Champions League with Montenegros Buducnost Podgorica, securing a 26-22 win in the finals they played against Norwegian contenders Larvik, in Budapest. Cristina Neagu was Buducnosts inter-left handball player, and came on top position in the Champions League scorers rankings, with 102 goals scored, on a par with Croatian Andrea Penezic of Vardar Skopje.

In June 2015, at the European Fencing Championships held in Montreux, Switzerland, the Romanian Simona Pop won bronze in the womens individual epee event.

Late in June, the inaugural edition of the European Games was held in the Azeri capital Baku. With a delegation of 147 athletes, Romania came in 17th in the medals rankings, with three gold, five silver and four bronze medals. Winners of the gold medals were Ana-Maria Branza in the womens individual epee event, judoka Andreea Chitu, in the 52-kilogram category and Romanias womens epee team, made of Ana-Maria Brânză, Simona Gherman, Simona Pop and Amalia Tătăran.

So much so for the first part of our look back at sports year 2015. Get ready to tune in for the second part of our roundup sports item, tomorrow. Bye for now!

(Translation by E. Nasta)