The Year 2023 in sports (I)

A lookback at Romanian athletes' notable performance in 2023

Florin Orban, 03.01.2024, 13:45

The year 2023 was eventful and auspicious for Romanian sports in terms of top-flight performance. 2023 has been a pre-Olympic year, so the athletes focused on securing their tickets for the Olympic Games in Paris. At the moment, the Romanian delegation has exceeded the number of 60 athletes. As regards representativity, the final number of athletes will eventually be decided by the international organizations’ ability to solve formalities related to the naturalization of several women athletes.

Early into 2023, tennis tournaments of the southern hemisphere were held: they preceded the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open in Melbourne. Of the Romanians that took part in the tournament, best-placed was Irina Begu. Irina reached as far as the semi-finals of Adelaide International 1, a WTA 500 tournament, an event with 826,000 USD in prize money. Begu wasted the opportunity to play the final as she sustained a defeat by Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus. Throughout the year, Sabalenka would become WTA 1st placed tennis player. In the women’s singles in Melbourne, Irina Begu was the only Romanian competitor to reach the second round. Pairing up with Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic in the women’s doubles, Monica Niculescu reached as far as the tournament’s round of 16. Best-placed in Melbourne was Elena-Gabriela Ruse, who played the semi-finals jointly with Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk.

In the wake of a long break, a Romanian athlete succeeded a notable result in winter sports. Valentin Crețu in February won the Nations Cup in skeleton sled, a contest held as part of a World Cup stage in Winterberg, Germany.

As part of Rugby Europe Championship’s Group B, Romania sustained a 20-38 away defeat by Portugal. According to Group B tables, Portugal was at the top, with15 points, while Romania came in second, with 10. In judo, an eight-strong delegation represented Romana at the European Open in Warsaw. Best-placed was Mircea Croitoru, who walked away with gold in the 100+ kilograms category.

In March, Romanian athletes won two medals at the European Indoor Athletics Championship held in Istanbul. Claudia Bobocea won silver in the 1,500m race, while Gabriel Bitan won bronze in the long-jump event.

In rugby, Romania came in 3rd at the end of the second-tier competition, Rugby Europe Championship. In the 3rd-place final, in Badajoz, Romania defeated host country Spain, 31 to 25. Also in March, in women’s handball, CSM Bucharest and Rapid Bucharest qualified to the Champions League’s quarterfinals. CSM had secured its straight qualification to the quarterfinals being second-placed in Group A. Rapid was in dire need of a playoff win against Slovenia’s Krim Ljubljana. In the first leg, Krim succeeded a 29-24 home win, In the return leg in Bucharest, Rapid outclassed Krim 30-24 and won the tie, on aggregate. Eventually, Rapid and CSM were defeated in the quarterfinals, by Norway’s Vipers Kristiansand and Team Esbjerg of Denmark, respectively.

In April, as part of the WTA 1000 tournament in Miami, an event with 8.8 million USD up for grabs, Sorana Cîrstea reached as far as the semi-finals, where she was defeated by Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic. However, Cîrstea climbed 33 notches up according to the WTA rankings. At the European Wrestling Championships hosted by Croatia, the Romanian delegation walked home with five medals. Andreea Ana and Alexandra Anghel won gold in the 55-kg and 52-kg categories, respectively. Bronze medals were won by Cătălina Axente in the 76-kg category, Kriszta Incze in the 65-kg category and Denis Mihai in the 55-kg Greek-Roman category. At the European Weightlifting Championships hosted by Yerevan, Romania won 14 medals. Mihaela Cambei, Andreea Cotruța and Loredana Toma won gold medals, in the 49-kg snatch event, 55-kg clean and jerk and 71-kg total categories, respectively. Also in the women’s competition, Cosmina Pană won silver in the 45-kg snatch and total events, while in the men’s 55-kg competition, Valentin Iancu won silver in the clean and jerk event and bronze in the snatch and total events. At the European Gymnastics Championships hosted by Antalya, Turkey, the top performer for Romania was Sabrina Voinea, who won bronze in the floor final and ranked 4th in the vault event. In the men’s competition, Gabriel Burtănete ranked 4th in the vault event, while Andrei Muntean also finished 4th in the parallel bars final.

In May, the Romanian men’s handball team secured qualification to the European Championships to be held in Germany in January 2024. The Romanian team finished 2nd in preliminary Group 4. Romania had last qualified to a final tournament in 1996. In tennis, Sorana Cîrstea won the WTA 100 tournament in Reus, Spain, totaling 100 thousand EUR in prizes. At the European Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia, Romania won 5 gold medals in 1 silver. On the first day of the finals, the women’s four crew won gold, while the men’s 8+1 crew grabbed silver. On the second day, Ionela Cozmiuc won gold in the women’s lightweight single scull event, whereas Ioana Vrînceanu and Roxana Anghel won gold in the women’s double-scull event. The defending Olympic champions Ancuța Bodnar and Simona Radiș won gold for Romania in the women’s pair event, while the women’s 8+1 crew won gold. Romania ranked 2nd in the medals standings after Great Britain.

In June, the Polish city of Cracow hosted the European Games, where Romania grabbed a total of 17 medals, 6 gold, 6 silver and 5 bronze. The gold medals were won by Vlad Dascălu in mountain bike, Claudia Bobocea in the 1,500m race, Kinga Barabași in the women’s individual teqball and Apor Gyorgydeak in the men’s individual teqball, and finally in table tennis, Bernadette Szőcs in the women’s singles and the Romanian team in the team event. (EN & VP)