Sports Weekend

World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Doha

Florin Orban, 02.11.2018, 14:01

The World Artistic Gymnastics Championships are drawing to a close in Qatar’s Doha this coming weekend. For the Romanian delegation, the competition has ended already, since no Romanian gymnast has qualified for the apparatus finals. In the nations’ competition, Romania came in 21st in the men’s contest, and 13th in the women’s contest. Both Romanian teams have thus secured their participation in the 2019 edition of the World Championships, to be hosted by the German city of Stuttgart. Next year’s edition of the world championships will decide the nations that will send their delegations to the 2020 edition of the Olympic Games, scheduled in Japan.

In the men’s all-round event, Andrei Muntean was the only gymnast to have made it to the finals, coming in 22nd. In the women’s contest of the same event, it was only Denisa Golgota who got through to the finals, where she secured the 17th position.

Now news from weightlifting. Four Romanian athletes, one in the men’s and three in the women’s competition, are part of the Romanian delegation that has travelled to Ashkhabad in Turkmenistan to participate in the World Weightlifting Championships that got underway on Thursday. The competition counts towards qualification to the 2020 edition of the Olympic Games. In the 49-kilogram category, Elena Ramona Andries is the first to compete on Sunday. She is followed by Cristina Iovu, in the 55-kilogram category. This coming Monday will see the Championship’s 64-kilogram event unfolding, and defending world champion, Romania’s Elena Toma will participate in the 63 kilogram category. Nicolae Onica will be the last Romanian to take part in the men’s 96-kilogram event, scheduled this coming Wednesday, on November the 7th.

604 athletes from 88 countries take part in the World Championships hosted by the city of Ashkhabad in Turkmenistan. We recall that in the previous edition held in Anaheim, the USA, Romania’s delegation was made of six athletes and walked home with three gold medals, won by Loredana Toma, in the 63-kilogram category, and a bronze medal, won in the snatch style event by Dumitru Captari in the 77-kilogram category.

We go out with news from football, as this weekend will see matches counting towards the 14th-round of the domestic league One championship, which is also the first of the regular return series. One single match is scheduled for Friday, as Politehnica Iasi take on Universitatea Craiova. On Saturday, Sepsi Sfintu Gheorghe play a home game against FC Hermannstadt, while FC Botosani receive the visit of CFR Cluj. On Sunday and on home soil, Dunarea Calarasi take on Viitorul Constanta, then the National Arena in Bucharest will host the match pitting FCSB against Astra Giurgiu. The last two fixtures as part of round 14 will see Concordia Chiajna taking on Gaz Metan Medias, while FC Voluntari play Dinamo Bucharest. CFR Cuj are at the top of the table with 26 points, while FCSB are the runner-up team, with 24 points.