Athletes of the Week on RRI: Adina Diaconu and Andreea Dragoman

Adina Diaconu and Andreea Dragoman won the world youth championships in South Africa

Florin Orban, 13.12.2016, 13:12

For many years now athletes from Asia have been dominating table tennis competitions. This has prompted many European teams to draft players from China, Taiwan or Korea. The selection process includes millions of athletes, of whom only a valuable few reach top-notch competitions.

Under these circumstances, its often very difficult for European athletes to reach the final phases of world or Olympic competitions. Of the 32 Olympic gold medals put in play since 1988, when table tennis became an official Olympic sport, only one was grabbed by a European athlete, namely Jan-Ove Waldner of Sweden, at the Olympic Games of 1992 in Barcelona. China won 28 gold medals, while South Korea three.

In this context, the win of the Romanian pair made up of Adina Diaconu and Andreea Dragoman at the World Youth Championships in South Africa is truly remarkable. For their great result, we have designated them both Athletes of the Week on RRI.

In the final match played in Capetown, Diaconu and Dragoman won against Hina Hayata and Miyu Kato of Japan 4-2. Adina Diaconu also had a good run in the womens singles. She failed to qualify to the final after losing to Mak Tze Wing of Hong Kong, and grabbed bronze for qualifying to the semi-finals.

Also worth mentioning is the 5th place grabbed by Romania in the mens team event, and the 6th place grabbed by the Romanian womens team.

(Translated by V. Palcu)