Sports Roundup
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Florin Orban, 10.02.2020, 13:45
We start with handball. The women’s handball team CSM Bucharest has taken a new step forward towards the Champions League quarter finals. On Saturday, in a match counting for Main Group 1, Romania’s vice-champions defeated, away from home, the Norwegian team Vipers Kristiansand 25-23. Cristina Neagu scored 14 times. CSM thus went up to 4th place in the group, with 7 points. On the first 3 places are Metz from France, Rostov-Don from Russia and Team Esbjerg from Denmark, all with 9 points each, three rounds ahead of the main stage final. Qualifying to the quarter finals are the first 4 teams in the classification.
In Main Group 2, SCM Ramnicu Valcea lost, on home ground, to the Hungarian team ETO Győr 20 to 29. The Romanian handballers have 4 points, being ranked 4th in the group. Top of the classification are Győr and Brest Bretagne of France with 13 points each. 3rd ranked is Buducnost Podgorica from Montenegro, with 8 points.
In the EHF Cup, Gloria Bistrita-Nasaud managed to qualify to the quarter finals, having been previously ranked 2nd in group C. In the last round, Gloria Bistrita ended the away match against the Hungarian team ERD in a 24-all draw. In group B, Măgura Cisnădie is ranked last, after having lost all matches played.
Now news from tennis. Romania’s women’s team on Sunday failed to qualify to the final of the Fed Cup tournament after having been defeated by Russia in Cluj, 3-2. On Friday Ana Bogdan defeated Veronika Kudermetova 6-3, 6-7, 6-1 and Elena Gabriela Ruse was defeated by Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-1, 6-4. On Saturday Alexandrova had the upper hand on Ana Bogdan winning the match 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 then Jaqueline Cristian leveled the score, after defeating Kudermetova 7-5, 6-3. In the doubles, the pair Ana Blinkova/Ana Kalinskaia defeated the Romanian pair Jaqueline Cristian/ Gabriela Ruse 6-3, 6-2. Simona Halep, Irina Begu and Monica Niculescu did not participate in this competition as they preferred to focus on the WTA tournaments with a view to getting qualification to the Olympic Games to be hosted by Tokyo.
We pass on to rugby. Romania’s national team lost the 2nd match played as part of the 2020 Rugby Europe Championship. ‘Stejarii’ were defeated away from home, in Caldas da Rainha, by the Portuguese team, 22-11.
At the weekend, matches were played in the 24th stage of the Romanian First League championship. On Friday Chindia Târgovişte defeated Astra, in Giurgiu, 2 – 1. On Saturday in Mediaş, Gaz Metan ended in a nil-all draw the match against CFR Cluj. 3 matches were played on Sunday. Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe defeated Poli Iaşi on home turf 1-0, FC Voluntari won also on home ground against Dinamo Bucharest 2-1 and Universitatea Craiova defeated Viitorul Constanţa, 2-1, away from home. Monday will see the last 2 matches of the stage: FC Botoşani will be up against FC Hermannstadt and FCSB will play Academica of Clinceni. The team from Cluj is top of the classification with 47 points being followed by Craiova, with 43 points. (translation by L. Simion)
