The athlete of the week

Saber fencer Bianca Pascu

Florin Orban, 23.07.2019, 13:10

The Romanian delegation walked home with one single medal, at the recently-held World fencing Championship in Budapest. Bianca Pascu won bronze in the individual saber event. Reason enough for Radio Romania International to designate Pascu the Athlete of the week.

Bianca Pascu’s trail in the competition included a first-round win against Russia’s Yana Egoryan, 15-13, another win in the second round, when Pascu ousted another Russian, Olga Nikitina, 15-7, and a 15-14 win in the round of 16 against Indian contender Devi Anandha. Then in the quarterfinals, Bianca Pascu outclassed Anne Elisabeth Stone of the US, 15-13. However, in the competition’s semifinals, Pascu sustained 5-15 defeat by Ukraine’s Olga Kharlan.

Kharlan was an Olympic champion in the nations’ competition in 2008. Having won the final in Budapest against Russia’s Sofia Velikaia, 15-14, Kharlan added the sixth world title to her record sheet. The title is also Olga Kharlan’s fourth individual title. The other bronze medal in the competition went to Greece’s Theodora Gkoutoura, whom Velikaia defeated in the semifinals, 15-11.

Currently signed up by Dinamo Bucharest, Bianca Pascu is coached by Ioan Pop. She was born on June 13, 1988 in Brasov. Bianca Pascu took up fencing at the age of 10, Biaca’s first noteworthy results occurred in 2008, when she walked away with silver in the individual event and the nations’ competition at the Juniors’ European Championship in Gent, Belgium. In 2011, at the Summer Universiad in China’s Shenzhen, Bianca Pascu won the silver medal. In 2017 at the European championship in Tbilisi, Georgia, Pascu walked away with bronze. At the end of the 2017-2018 competition season, Bianca Pascu was 5th-placed according to world rankings. At present, Bianca is 13th-placed, in a classification dominated by Olga Kharlan.