Sporting Highlights 2013

A brief review of the most important competitions and the best performances of Romanian athletes in the year that has passed.

Florin Orban, 27.12.2013, 12:45

The month of January 2013 was dominated at international level by tennis competitions. Among the protagonists was the Romanian-Byelorussian pair made up of Horia Tecau and Max Mirnii, who made it to the double finals of the ATP tournament in Sydney. Unfortunately, Tecau and Mirnii were outperformed by brothers Bob and Mike Bryan from the US.

Tennis players from Romania didn’t manage a good show at the Australian Open that followed, as they were eliminated in the very first week of the competition. But Romania fared better in the athletics competition that followed, with two athletes obtaining excellent results in the first leg of the national indoor contests held in Bucharest. Triple jumper Marian Oprea marked his comeback to competitions with a 1.80 meter jump. Mihai Donisan, also from Romania, won the high jump contest with a 2.30-centimeter jump. With such results Oprea and Donisan became leaders of Europe’s indoor athletics season.

The month of February brought further good performances in tennis. Romania’s Davis Cup team qualified for the second round of the Euro-African Zone, after a five-nil win against Denmark.

In spring Romania’s rugby side secured wins against Portugal, Russia and Spain. In March they outperformed Belgium, but ended in a draw their game against Georgia and were edged out of the competition.

The month of March saw the indoor athletics championships in Gothenburg, a competition that wasn’t of good omen for the Romanians, who shamefully came back empty-handed.

Good news came from women’s handball with Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea qualifying for the semis of the Champions League.

The Romanians were stopped in their tracks a month later, by ETO Gyor of Hungary, which won on aggregate.

Albanian capital Tirana in April hosted the European weightlifting championship, from where the Romanian athletes walked away with 12 medals, one gold, five silver and six bronze. Razvan Martin became the gold medallist in the jerk event with a 190 kilogram lift. Martin also stepped on the third step of the podium with a total lift of 346 kilograms.

In the European Gymnastics Championships in Moscow, Romania got seven medals. Larisa Iordache won the beam contest and came second in the all round, vault and floor events. Diana Bulimar walked away with silver from the beam event, winning bronze in the floor competition.

Also in April Lukas Rosol from the Czech Republic won the Romanian Open, an ATP tournament with 410 thousand euros in prize money. Rosol outperformed Guillermo Garcia — Lopez from Spain, 6-3, 6-2 in the finals, but the doubles went to Romanian — Byelorussian pair Tecau –Miirnai, who defeated the Czech-Austrian pair Dlouhy — Marach, 4-6, 6-4, 10-6.

In May, Simona Halep from Romania made it to the semifinals of the international tennis tournament in Rome, after having eliminated several top players. She failed to reach the finals after she had lost the match against the competition’s odds-on favourite Serena Williams. Horia Tecau and Max Mirnii were also stopped in the semis of the double contest by twins Bob and Mike Bryan of the USA.

In June the Spanish city of Seville played venue for the European Rowing Championship. Romania obtained three medals, two gold and one silver. Romania’s women double and eights became European champions, while our men’s four came second in the competition.

Bogdan Juratoni, from the Romanian delegation obtained a silver medal at the European boxing championship in Minsk. The European fencing tournaments in Croatia were a good opportunity for the Romanian fencers to prove themselves. Ana Maria Branza and Tiberiu Dolniceanu reaped gold in the epee and saber contests. Romania’s women epee and men saber teams came second in the competition.

The European Kayak-canoe championship was held in Portugal in June, where Romanians won two silver and four bronze medals.

Also in June, Simona Halep won the single contest of the WTA tournament in Nuremberg with 235 thousand dollars in prize money after a 6-3, 6-3 win against Andrea Petkovic from Germany.