Athlete of the Week

Pugilist Andrei Paul Arădoaie

Florin Orban, 31.05.2022, 13:45

In the last few years Romanian boxing scored better results in women s competitions than in men s competitions. 2015 was the last year when a Romanian fighter won medals in a European senior competition. It was Mihai Nestor that won the bronze in Samokov, Bulgaria, that year. No medal had been won until last week, when Andrei Paul Arădoaie won the bronze in the 86-kilo category of the European Boxing Championships in Yerevan, Armenia. For this reason, RRI has nominated Andrei Paul Arădoaie as athlete of the week.

Twho other athletes represented Romania in Yerevan, namely, Emanuel Constantin Mican, in the 92-kilo category and Răzvan Cristian Filip, in the 92+ kilo category, had left the competition from the first round. Aradoaie s opponent in the first round, the Slovak Matúš Strnisko did not show up, so Andrei moved on to the quarterfinals. He faced Aksin Burak of Turkey, no 5 in last year s World Chamionships. The Romanian lost the first round but won the other two and the final decision was 4-1 for Aradoaie. In the semifinals, Aradoaie was defeated by Gheorghi Kuşinaşvili, of Georgia, and went home with bronze.

Andrei Paul Arădoaie was born in Letcani, Iasi county, on October 5, 1996. He is the athlete of Dinamo Bucharest. He was noticed at the age of 12, by coach Dumitru Dorobanţu, who brought him to Bucharest. In 2014 in Croatia he became a European Youth Champion in the 81-kg category. In 2017 in Braila he won another European title in the same category while in 2019, in Ekaterinburg, Russia, in his first senior participation, got as far as the 8th finals. Two years later, in Belgrade, in the 86-kilo category, he got the same result. (EE)