The year 2021 in sports – Part 2

Romanian sports in the second year of the pandemic

Florin Orban, 28.12.2021, 13:45

The year 2021 worldwide, just like the previous year,
was affected by the new Covid-19 pandemic. The world of sports was no exception
to that, but those involved succeeded to cope with the situation. Competitions
were held, that had initially been scheduled in 2020, such as the European Football championship or the Olympic Games, even though the latter event was
held under special safety conditions. We have so far come up with the first
part of the 2021 retrospective in sports, specifically, we have covered the
first six months of the year. We’re yet again spinning the yarn of 2021 sports
year. In July, tennis player Elena Gabriela Ruse won the Hamburg tournament,
the first WTA success for the Romanian. Ruse secured a 7-6, 6-4 win against Germany’s Andreea Petcovic. Prior to the
tournament, Elena Ruse was 198th placed according to the WTA rankings. She came
straight from the qualifiers and her trail back then included wins over some of
the tournament’s seeded players, among whom Ukraine’s Daria Yastremska, the
top-seeded player in Hamburg.

The Olympic Games in Tokyo also kicked off in July. In
Tokyo, four times did the Romanian delegation step onto the steps of the
podium, while three of the medals went to the rowing crews. The women’s double
sculls crew made of Simona Radiș and Ancuța
Bodnar won the Olympic title. Silver went to the men’s four coxless crew made
of Mihăiţă Ţigănescu, Mugurel Semciuc, Ştefan Berariu and Cosmin Pascari. The
Romanian men’s pair made of Ciprian Tudosă and Marius Cozmiuc also won silver. The Romanian delegation’s only singles
medal was won by veteran epee fencer Ana-Maria
Popescu, who also walked home with silver.

In August, tennis player Horia Tecau and the German Kevin
Krawietz played the finals in Toronto, a tournament with almost three million USD up
for grabs. Top-seeded all-Croatian pair made of Nikola Metkic and Mate Pavic overpowered
their Romanian-Dutch challengers. Raluca Olaru and Nadia Kicenok won the
women’s doubles final of the WTA tournament in Chicago, securing a 7-6, 5-7,
10-8 win against Japanese – Ukrainian pair made of Makoto Ninomiya and Nadia
Kicenok’s twin sister, Ljudmila.

Romanian sports legend Ivan Patzaichin passed away in
September. The greatest Romanian rower of all time died at the age of 71
because of a fatal illness. In the Polish locality Kruszwica, the Romanian
rowing delegation won ten medals, of which five were gold and five silver, as
part of the European U-21 Rowing Championship. The women’s coxed four and coxless four crews won the Olympic titles. The coxed eight and the lightweight singles crews
also won gold. Also gold went to the men’s coxless four crew. Romania came in 1st according to the nations’ final
rankings. Also in September, at the US Open, British tennis player, 18-year-old
Emma Raducanu, whose father is Romanian, won the tournament. Emma was the only
tennis player coming straight from the qualifiers who won a Grand Slam
tournament.

In October, the women’s doubles event as part of the
WTA Nur-Sultan tournament in Kazakhstan was won by Monica Niculescu and
Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam, who outclassed the all-Russian pair made of Anghelina
Gabueva and Anastasia Zaharova, c6-2, 4-6, 10-5. Then in Moscow, Raluca Olaru
and Ukrainian Nadia Kicenok reached as far as the tournament’s finals. In November, swimmer David Popovici won gold in the
200m freestyle event as part of the short-course European swimming
Championships in Kazan, Russia. 17-year-old Popovici won his first European seniors’
title, also setting a new national record. Robert Glinta won silver and bronze
in the 100m and 50m backstroke events. Then Romania’s men’s tennis team
advanced to the qualifiers of the Davis Cup final tournament. In Cluj, the
Romanian team outperformed the national team of Peru, 4-nil.

The World IHF Women’s Championships were held in Spain
in December. With one of the world’s best handballers, Cristina Neagu, absent
from the line-up, Romania came in 13th according to the final
rankings. However, the Romanian women’s handball team is the only national
squad to have competed in all editions of the World IHF Championships. In
December, fencer Ana-Maria Popescu officially retired from competition, having
won the silver medal in the World Epee Cup in Dubai. Previously, Popescu had
been awarded the World Cup Trophy for the 2020-2021 competition season.

Our retrospective of the year 2021 in sports has come
to an end. We keep our hopes high for 2022 to be a better year, for
competitors, head-coaches and sports lovers alike.

(EN)