Sports weekend

The latest from swimming, fencing, athletics and football

Florin Orban, 31.07.2023, 13:45

The World Swimming Championships drew to a close in Japan’s Fukukoa this
past Sunday. The Romanian delegation walked home with two medals, both won in
the competition’s high-diving events. Constantin
Popovici won gold, while Cătălin Preda, silver. All hopes were pinned on the
holder of the 200m freestyle European record as well as the 100m freestyle
world record holder, David Popovici. This time around, the Romanian failed to
step onto a step of the podium.

The World Fencing
Championships drew to a close in Milan, Italy. Romania sent a 15-strong delegation,
with 12 twelve fencers competing in the men’s events and 5 in the women’s events.
The delegation walked away with no medal. Best-placed was Mălina Călugăreanu, in the foil event, who came in 8th.
Apart from medals, the competition offered important points required for the qualification
to the 2024 edition of the Olympic Games in Paris.

As part of the Summer
Sports European Youth Olympic Festival that has been recently held in Slovenia’s
Maribor, Romania came in 4th in the nations’ competition in terms of
medals. The Romanian athletes won 9 gold, 6 silver and 5 bronze medals. Five of the gold medals were provided by swimmers.
Robert Badea won the mixed 200 and 400m events, Aissia Prisăcariu won the 200m backstroke
event, while Daria Silişteanu won the 100m backstroke event. Added to that was
the gold medal won by the 4 by 100m women’s relay team. In judo, Tudor Moşoi won in the 60-kilogram category, while David Gliga won in the 73-kilogram category. Also
gold went to the mixed women’s relay team, in the 100, 200 300 and 400m races. A
gold medal winner was Alin Şavlovschi in the 2,000m steeplechase event.

The European Junior and U23 Weightlifting Championships will be held in Bucharest until
this coming Thursday. In the first week of the competition, the Romanian
weightlifters won 14 gold medals, of which 8 in the juniors category and 6 in
the U23 category of the competition.

In news from
football, this past weekend saw matches being played, counting towards the Romanian
Super League’s third round. On Friday, U Cluj grabbed a 4-3 away win against FC
U Craiova 1948, while in Bucharest, Rapid drew FC Botoşani, 2-all. In Sibiu on Saturday,
FC Hermannstadt defeated UTA Arad, 2-1, while in Galati FCSB defeated the local
side Oţelul, 2-nil. In Ovidiu on Sunday, the newly-promoted team Poli Iasi
succeeded a 3-1 away win against holders Farul Constanta, while in Cluj, CFR drew against Universitatea Craiova, 1-all. With 9 points, FCSB are at the top of the table, while CFR,
are second-placed, with 7.