Silver for Romanian rowing

Romania has won a new medal at the Tokyo Olympics

Florin Orban, 29.07.2021, 14:00

Every new
day at the Olympics seems to yield a new medal for the Romanian delegation. On
Thursday morning, the Romanian men’s pair made up of Ciprian Tudosă and Marius
Cozmiuc scooped silver after finishing the race in second place with a time of
6.16 minutes. The Romanians were outranked by Martin and Valent Sinkovic of
Croatia, who led the race from the beginning. The bronze medal went on Frederic
Vystavel and Joachim Sutton of Denmark. After the awards ceremony, Criprian Tudosă
told the media:

It was a
beautiful and hard race. It was the final. We are very happy with this result,
and this Olympic cycle ended well for us, I might say.

In turn,
Marius Cozmiuc had this to say:

We will
see what the future has in store for us. We hope we will do better, and the
men’s four crew as well, and the girls. We hope the whole team gets goods
results.

Also on
Thursday, Ionela Cozmiuc and Gianina Beleagă ranked 6th in the A
finals of the women’s lightweight double-scull event. Two-time world champions
in 2017 and 2018, Ionela and Gianina were out of pace in the race, and failed
to secure a medal. On Friday, the women’s eight crew will also compete in the A
final after setting a new world record in the repechage, 5.52 min

utes.
Until then, the men’s pair performance is all the more notable, considering
that Romania’s last medal in men’s rowing dates back to 1992, in Barcelona.
Back then, the Romanian men’s four won gold, the men’s eight scooped silver,
and the men’s double-scull walked home with bronze. A long period of subpar
results followed, but recently, things have improved significantly,
particularly after the Romanian Rowing Federation brought in a coach from
Italy. Antonio Colamonici has been training the men’s rowing team for the last
three years, and the women’s team in the last year. Let us further note that in
swimming, David Popovici ranked 7th in the 100-meter freestyle
final, finishing the race in 48.4 seconds. The gold went to Caeleb Dressel of
the United States, who also set a new Olympic record. Popovici’s best result at
Tokyo remains his 4th place in the 200-meter freestyle final, when
he came very close to scooping bronze. On Friday, David Popovici will perform
in the 50-meter freestyle qualifying round. (VP)