Sports weekend

The latest from ice hockey, rugby and women's tennis

Florin Orban, 08.01.2021, 13:45

We begin with news from ice hockey. In the ice hockey
Erste Liga regional competition, Miercurea Ciuc grabbed a 8-3 win against
Hungarian opponents Titanok, this past Thursday in Gyor. Scoring for Miercurea
Ciuc were Andrey Taratukhin, with a hattrick, John Anthony Combs, who scored
twice, then Tamas Laday, Tihamer Becze and Mathieu Tousignant scored one goal
each. Another Romanian team in Erste Liga, Corona Brasov sustained a 5-4 defeat
by Dunaujvarosi Acelbikak. Scoring for Corona were Carlo Finucci, who scored
twice, while Pavlo Borisenko and Cody Carlson scored one goal each. In another
Erste Liga fixture, Ferencvaros Budapest defeated CS Gheorgheni HC, 3-nil. Ferencvaros,
are at the top of the table, with 46 points. DEAC Debrecen is the runner-up
team with 45. Both teams have played a similar number of games, 23.

In news from rugby, Romania’s pool of regulars as of
January 10 begins their training session nearby Bucharest, in Izvorani, ahead
of the national team’s match against Belgium, to be played on February 7, 2021;
the pending fixture is part of the 2020 edition of the Rugby Union
Championship. 37 rugby players were call for in the training session in
Izvorani; all of them are signed up by domestic championship teams. The match
against Belgium will be venued by the Ion Oblemenco stadium in the southern
Romanian city of Craiova. According to the Romanian Rugby Federation, the match
will be played in an empty stadium. In the Rugby Europe Championship
as-it-stands table, Belgium and Romania are at the bottom of the table, in
descending order. If it still remains on the bottom position, Romania will have
a playoff fixture against the Netherlands on February 20 or 21st.
The match is crucial for Romania to retain its place in Tier 2 of European
rugby.

The 2021 season of the Rugby European Championship marks
the qualifiers’ kick-start ahead of the 2023 edition of the World Cup.

In women’s tennis, the first important tournament in
2021 is underway in Abu Dhabi; the event has 563, 530 USD up for grabs. At the moment, all Romanian women tennis players have been eliminated from the
competition. In the qualifiers’ last round, Irina Fetecau was defeated by
Italy’s Lucrezia Stefanini, 1-6, 6-2, 7-6. Sorana Cirstea was scheduled to play
in the first round, but she pulled out of competition because of an abdominal
injury.

(Translation by Eugen Nasta)