Sports Round-up
The latest news from basketball, table tennis and football.
Florin Orban, 08.10.2026, 13:45
Wednesday saw the matches counting for the men’s European basketball competitions. U-BT Cluj-Napoca won their first victory in the new EuroCup season. In Group B, the Romanian champions defeated the Italian team Umana Reyer Venezia 98-92 at home. American player Javonte Smart was U-BT’s most valuable player, with 26 points and 9 rebounds. In the first round, U-BT had lost to another Italian team, Maxima Roma. After two rounds, all eight teams in the group have one win and one loss, being tied on goal difference. The Cluj-Napoca team will play their next match on October 14, away, against the Lithuanian team Siauliai Basketball.
In FIBA Europe Cup’s Group A, CSM CSU Oradea defeated the Swiss team Fribourg Olympic 93-67, in their opening match in the competition’s Group H, at home. The Oradea team dominated play from beginning to end and pulled off a decisive victory. Their best player was the Romanian-American international Kris Richard, with 20 points and 3 rebounds. Oradea will play their next match in Bulgaria, against Lokomotiv Plovdiv, on October 14.
Also in the FIBA Europe Cup, but in Group C, SCM Universitatea Craiova were defeated by the Greek team Kolossos from Rhodes, 77-65. American player Ronald Polite, with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists, was the best player of the Romanian team. The Craiova team will play their next match on October 14, at home, against the Portuguese team Sporting Lisbon.
At the table tennis tournament in Beijing, on Thursday, the last Romanian team in competition were also eliminated. In the women’s doubles, Bernadette Szőcs and Elizabeta Samara were defeated by the Chinese pair Wang Yidi and Jiang Yiyi 3-0 in sets. Worth noting is the achievement of the young player Darius Movileanu, who reached the round of last 16 in the singles. On his way there, he defeated Japan’s Hiroto Shinozuka, no. 18 in the world. As a result, Movileanu climbed to 83rd place in the international federation’s rankings, the highest position in his career.
We end with football. The Romanian national side fell to its lowest position in history in the FIFA rankings. After four consecutive defeats in the Nations League in recent days, Romania are now in 58th place. Spain top the ranking, followed by Argentina, France and England.
