Athlete of the Week

Judoka Alexandru Matei has been declared Athlete of the Week by Radio Romania International

Florin Orban, 17.10.2023, 13:45

With less than one year before the Olympic Games in Paris, a series of competitions
is underway enabling all athletes to get plane tickets to the world’s most
prestigious sporting event. One suchlike competition was the European Judo Cup hosted
by the city of Malaga in Spain last weekend.

The event brought together 355 athletes
of 35 countries, 211 in the men’s competition and 144 in the female’s contest.
The best Romanian performance was obtained by Alexandru Matei, who became winner
in his category of 60 kilograms and has also reaped Radio Romania International’s
title, Athlete of the Week.

In Malaga, Matei first outperformed Mateo Garcia Vicente of Spain. In
the round of sixteen he defeated Nordine Adrif of Britain and Jesse Weizenegger
of Switzerland in the quarters. In the semifinals, the Romanian won against
Portuguese Emerson Silva, and defeated Bart Weling of the Netherlands in the
finals.

Alexandru Matei was born on October 22, 2002, in Caransebeş, western
Romania. He obtained his first performance in the cadets section of the World
Cup in Berlin in 2019. He became bronze medalist in the same cadets section of
the European championship in Warsaw and silver in the Youth Olympics in Baku,
Azerbaijan. After the pandemics, in
2022, he won bronze in the European Cups in Athens and Malaga plus a silver
medal in the similar contest in Paks, Hungary. The best result last year was
the bronze medal he obtained in the Under-23 championships in Sarajevo. In the Francophony
Games hosted by Kinshasa this year Matei came second in the 60 kilogram
category.

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