Athlete of the Week – Fencer Ana-Maria Popescu

Ana-Maria Popescu has scooped yet another title

Florin Orban, 05.11.2019, 13:45

The World
Fencing Championships were held last week in Tallinn, Estonia. In the women’s
epee singles, Ana-Maria Popescu, better known to fencing lovers as Ana-Maria
Branza, reaped gold, after defeating Violetta Kolobova of Russia 15-13 in the
final. Ranking third were fencers from China: Yiwen Sun and Mingye Zhu.
Following this result Ana-Maria is now ranked 3rd in world rankings,
which guarantees qualification to the Olympic Games due in Tokyo next year. For
her performance we have designated Ana-Maria Popescu Athlete of the Week on
RRI.

The competition
in Tallinn was the first Ana-Maria Popescu enrolled in together with her new
coach, Mihai Popa. Popescu told the media that she’s been on a very good terms
with her new coach. Our fencer will now undergo a period of training, to be
followed by the competitions in Havana and Doha in January, which will be key
to securing qualification to the Tokyo Olympics.

Ana Maria
Popescu was born on November 26, 1984. For the first time ever Ana Maria
Popescu compelled international recognition in 2001, when she won the title at
the World Cadets Championships held in Poland. In 2002, Ana Maria Popescu
reaped the world juniors’ title at the world championships in Turkey. 2002
turned out to be a special year for Ana Maria Popescu, who walked away with
silver from the World Seniors Championships held in Lisbon. At the Athens
Olympics in 2004, when all Romanians’ hopes were pinned on Ana Maria Popescu,
the Romanian fencer came in 16th, an unassuming position back then.
In 2008 in Bejing, however, Ana Maria Popescu braced up and won the silver
medal, the highest distinction for Romanian fencing at the Beijing Olympics. In
2010 and 2011, Ana Maria Popescu was part of the Romanian side that won the
world epee title in the nations’ competition. In 2013, at the European
Championships in Croatia, Ana Maria Popescu won gold in the women’s singles and
silver in the nations’ competition. At the European Championships held in
Strasbourg in 2014 and in Montreux, in 2015, Ana Maria Popescu won gold in the
nations’ competition. Ana Maria Popescu’s career best so far occurred in 2016.
At the Olympic Games in Rio, the Romanian fencer was part of the lineup that
walked away with gold from the nations’ competition.

(Translated by V. Palcu)