Top-notch Romanian athletes at the end of their career

Leading Romanian competitors have bowed out in 2021

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România Internațional, 31.12.2021, 13:45

Attention-grabbing
in 2021 was, among other things, the retirement of several top-flight Romanian athletes.
Among them, fencer Ana-Maria Popescu, tennis player Horia
Tecau as well as gymnasts Larisa Iordache and Marian Drăgulescu.

For the fifth time
running, in 2021 Ana-Maria Popescu has been designated the world’s best epee
fencer. According to the final rankings, Ana-Maria Popescu was again at the top
of the table. In the last confrontation of her career, in early December, Ana Maria
Popescu came in 2nd at the MK Fencing Academy International Epee
Cup, a World Cup stage event held in Dubai. Ana-Maria Popescu made her
retirement public immediately after the contest.

Lovers of fencing
know her as Ana-Maria Branza. She was born on November 26, 1984 in Bucharest. Ana
Maria first compelled recognition when she stepped onto the third step of the
podium at the World Seniors Championships held in 2002 in Lisbon. Ana-Maria was only 18 back then. All hopes were
pinned on the then up-and-coming Romanian fencer ahead of the Athens Olympics
in 2004. However, she unassumingly cane in 16th. Ana-Maria Popescu’s
stunning comeback occurred at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, when she walked
away with silver, at that time the Romanian delegation’s best performance at
the Olympics in China. However, 2016 was the year when Ana-Maria Popescu’s
career best happened; at the Rio Olympics, the Romanian won gold with the epee
national team. Ana-Maria Popescu then went on to win silver in the women’s
singles as part of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Tennis player Horia
Tecau is Romania’s best men’s doubles tennis player. For the seventh time running,
in 2021 Tecau advanced to the Champions Tournament, jointly with the German Kevin
Krawietz. In Turin, Tecau and Krawietz succeeded a win and sustained two
defeats. Horia Tecau announcement his retirement shortly afterwards. At the previous
editions of the Champions Tournament, Tecau twice competed alongside Sweden’s Robert
Lindstedt. Horia Tecau also paired up with the Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer four
times. Tecau and Rojer emerged as winners of the tournament in 2015.

Horia Tecau was
born on January 19, 1985 in Brasov. In 2002, pairing up with Florin Mergea, Tecau
won the Wimbledon men’s doubles juniors’ title. From July 2008, Horia Tecau had
been placed among the world’s top 100 doubles tennis players. Since November 2009,
Horia Tecau has been placed among the world’s top 50 tennis players. And that’s all from Sports today. You can also
access our sports items at rri.ro and on Facebook. Tecau then constantly ascended
according to the world’s men’s doubles rankings, reaching as far as the
runner-up position in November 2015. Tecau won 38 men’s doubles ATP tournaments
and played 24 finals. Pairing up with the Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer, Tecau twice
won Grand Slam tournaments, in Wimbledon, in 2015 and the US Open, in 2017. In
2012, Horia Tecau won the mixed doubles version of the Australian Open jointly
with Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US. At the Rio Olympics in 2016, pairing up
with Florin Mergea, Tecau walked away with silver. Horia Tecau has been a full-time
member of Romania’s Davis Cup team since 2003.

The best Romanian gymnast
in recent years, Larisa Iordache put an end to her career in 2021. Larisa was
born on June 19, 1996, in Bucharest. Her debut in major seniors’ competitions
occurred in 2012, when in the singles and the teams’ competitions she won gold in
the floor event and silver in the beam event, as part of the European Championship
in Brussels. In the nations’ competition in 2012 at the London Olympics, Larisa
Iordache won bronze. At the European Championship in Moscow in 2013, Larisa won
gold in the beam event and stepped onto the second step of the podium in the
all-around, floor and vault events. At the World Championship in Antwerp, also
in 2013, Larisa Iordache won bronze in the floor event. In 2014, Larisa
Iordache won gold in the European Championship held in Sofia, in the floor
event and the nations’ competition. She also won silver in the beam event and
bronze in the vault event. Then Larisa Iordache won silver in the Nanning World
Championship in the all-around and floor events. In 2015, Larisa Iordache won
bronze in the all-around event as part of the World Championship in Glasgow. 2016
was rather uneventful for Larisa because of an injury. In 2017 she resumed
participation in competitions and won bronze in the beam event as part of the European
Championship held in Cluj. Yet Larisa Iordache’s stunning comeback occurred in December
2020; at the European Championship in Turkey’s Mersin she won gold in the beam
and floor events and two silver medals in the all-around vault event and,
respectively, in the nations’ competition. At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 Larisa
Iordache qualified to the beam final with the fourth-best score. However, Larisa
was unable to compete in the final because of a health condition.

One
of the longest-lasting gymnasts of all time, Marian Dragulescu, was born on December
18, 1980, in Bucharest Marian Drăgulescu retired from competition in 2021, at
the age of 41. He has the most impressive record among Romanian men gymnasts. Marian
won one gold medal and two other bronze medals at the Athens Olympics in 2004. He
then won eight gold and two silver medals in World championships. In European Championships,
Marian Dragulescu won 18 medals, of which ten gold, six silver and two bronze
medals. Dragulescu was designated the Best Athlete of the year in 2005 and 2009.
There even is a vault exercise bearing Marian Dragulescu’s name. (EN)