Athlete of the week
România Internațional, 05.04.2022, 13:30
Last weeks attention-grabbing sports event was hosted by Hungarian capital city Budapest. At the recently-held European Wrestling Championship, Romania sent in a strong delegation, mostly made of young wrestlers. The record did meet the expectations, as the Romanians walked home with four medals, of which pride of place holds the gold medal won in the womens version of the competition by Andreea Ana, in the 55-kilogram category. Reason enough for Radio Romania International to designate Andreea Ana the Athlete of the week.
Andreea Anas trail at the European championships was indeed blazing; in the quarterfinals, Andreea overpowered Germanys Anastasia Blayvas, 4-nil. Then in the semifinals, Ana defeated Mariana Drăguţan of the Republic of Moldova, 6-nil. Andreea Anas confrontation in the final was literally dramatic, since the Romanian grabbed a hard-fought 7-5 win against Ukrainian challenger Oleksandra Khomenets. Ana secured her win with a last-gasp attack against her opponent a couple of seconds from time. Also in the womens version of the competition, Alina Vuc and Kriszta Incze won bronze in the 50 and the 65-kilogram category, respectively. In the mens version of the championships, in the Greek-Roman style, Nicu Ojog won silver, in the 87-kilogram category.
Andreea Beatrice Ana was born on November 14, 2000 in the town of Mangalia, in the south-east. In 2018, Andreea won the bronze medal in the World U-23 Championships in Bucharest. In 2019, Andreea Ana walked away with bronze in the European Seniors Championships, also hosted by the Romanian capital city Bucharest. We recall that in Warsaw, in 2021, Andreea also won silver. As a member of the Romanian delegation at the Tokyo Olympics, Andreea Ana came in 16th. Then an all-gold record followed, for Ana, at the World U-23 Championships in Belgrade and the European U-23 Championships in Plovdiv, but also at the European Seniors Championships in Budapest. Andreea Anas most recent gold medal is an absolute first in the history of Romanian womens wrestling.
(EN)
