Olympic Prospects

The Romanian womens handball squad stands good chances to represent us in Tokyo Olympics

Florin Orban, 30.04.2020, 13:45

The only Romanian side qualified for
the Olympics in Tokyo so far is the men’s football team. Good
chances though also stands the Romanian women’s handball side, one
of the world’s best. The pre-Olympics tournament has been scheduled
for March next year. It was initially supposed to take place in
Podgorica, Montenegro over March 20th
and 22nd
2020, but the coronavirus pandemic has prompted the authorities to
change the timetable.

If nothing changes until next spring,
Romania’s opponents will be Montenegro, Norway and Thailand. The
Asian side is not seen as a redoubtable opponent, so three teams will
be actually vying for qualification and two will get plane tickets
for Tokyo. Norway and Montenegro are favourites, as they ranked 4th
and 5th
in the World Championships hosted by Japan, last year.

Romania came 12th
in the aforementioned competition.
Furthermore, Montenegro has a trump card against the Romanians, in
the person of assistant coach Adrian Vasile, the head technician of
Romanian side CSM Bucharest, one of Romania’s top-notch sides. The three handball squads are supposed
to meet in winter at the European Championships in Norway and
Denmark. Through a European Handball Federation decision, Romania
plays straight into the final tournament.

The games that remained to be played
in the preliminaries, had to be canceled. Four legs had been left out
from the initial qualification campaign. Romania, which was in a
group with Poland, Ukraine and the Faeroe Islands had two wins out of
two games played. Lots for the final tournament are to be cast in
Vienna on June 18th.

Bogdan Burcea, headcoach of Romania’s
national squad, said, quote ‘the European Championship could be an
exceptional means of training, both for the girls and for us. During
the tournament we can have positive experiences, which can help us in
the pre-Olympics tournament next spring, when we qualify Romania for
the Olympic Games in Tokyo’ end of quote. Agerpres news agency has
taken the quotation from the Romanian Handball Federation’s
Facebook page.

(translated by bill)