Athlete of the Year 2015

Due to her outstanding performance in 2015, handball player Cristina Neagu is 'Athlete of the Year on RRI'.

Florin Orban, 30.12.2015, 13:06

2015 was a relatively good year for Romanian sports, especially when it comes to team sports. The national football team booked their ticket for EURO 2016, and the national rugby team had a good run at the World Cup in England. However, the year’s most notable performance was the bronze medal the women’s national handball team won at the World Championships in Denmark in December.

With 63 goals on her record sheet, Cristina Neagu was the Romanian lineup’s best handball player. Neagu was also designated the most efficient scorer at the World Championship, being eventually designated the competition’s best player.

The first great performance Cristina Neagu achieved in 2015 was the Champions League trophy she won in May jointly with her club team Buducnost Podgorica. We recall that in Budapest the team from Montenegro secured a 26-22 win over Norwegian contenders Larvik. With 102 goals scored, Buducnost inter-left handball player Cristina Neagu earned the top position in the Champions League scorer rankings, on a par with Croatian Andrea Penezic, of Vardar Skopje.

Taking all these excellent feats into account, Radio Romania International designated Cristina Neagu the Athlete of the Year 2015. Here is what Cristina told Dolce Sport TV station when Romania’s national team won bronze in Denmark.

Cristina Neagu: I said 2015 was going to be MY year. God gave me the chance to win the Champions League as well. But being aware of the fact that we were supposed be playing here in Denmark, I wanted and said we would cut a fine figure at the World Championship, also standing a real chance to qualify for the Olympics, and it was going to be my year. By and large, it turned out to be true. Honestly, I don’t have enough words to describe how happy I am right now.

Cristina Neagu was born in Bucharest on August 22nd, 1988. She made her debut at the Sports School Club number 5. As a junior handball player, Cristina was more than once designated the world’s best handball player starting 2005, when Romania walked home with silver from the European Juniors’ Championship in Austria. She became a senior handball player in 2006, when she was signed up by Rulmentul Brasov, and then she got transferred to Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea.

In 2010, Cristina Neagu was designated the world’s best handball player, following an extraordinary year, when she reached the Champions League finals with Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea, also winning bronze at the European Championship in Norway and Denmark, with Romania’s national team. A number of health problems kept her far from the handball court for two years after that.

Following the dismantling of Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea, Cristina Neagu was signed up by Montenegro’s Buducnost Podgorica, the team she is currently playing for.