RRI Sports Club – Gymnastics

A look at Romania's participation in the European Gymnastics Championships

Florin Orban, 01.08.2018, 11:41

Romanian gymnastics is in for a new challenge, as Romanian gymnasts will have to prove their mettle at the European Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. The competition is open for both juniors and seniors. The Romanian delegation’s set target is to win at least two medals for each age category.

Compared to the 2018 edition of the European Championships hosted by the central Transylvanian city of Cluj, this year’s seniors lineup excludes Catalina Ponor, who retired from competition. Also absent is Larisa Iordache, who is recovering from an injury. Ioana Crisan and Olivia Cimpian were not included in the Romanian delegation either.

As for the men’s seniors’ lineup, it does not include Marian Dragulescu, who was not granted the medical approval to compete. Cristian Băţagă, Laurenţiu Nistor and Andrei Ursache will also be absent. Of the former team, only Andrei Muntean, Vlad Cotuna and Adelin Kotrong were included in the lineup competing in Glasgow. We recall that in the men’s version of the 2017 edition of the European Championships, Romania won two medals, gold in the floor event and silver in the vault event. Both medals were won by Marian Dragulescu. In the women’s version of the same competition, Catalina Ponor walked away with bronze in the floor and beam events.

The first to compete in Glasgow are the girls since the seniors’ qualifiers are scheduled on August the 2nd. Then the team finals follow on August the 4th. The individual event finals are scheduled on August the 5th. The juniors enter the competition on August the 3rd, when qualifiers and the team finals are scheduled. The all-round event final is also scheduled on August the 3rd. Juniors’ individual event finals are also scheduled on August the 5th.

The men’s seniors’ version of the aforementioned competition kick-starts on August the 9th, when the qualifiers are held, for the team and individual event finals. The nations’ competition finals are held on August 11, while the apparatus pieces finals will be held on August 12. As for the juniors, qualifiers are held on August 10. The final rankings in the all-round event and in the nations’ competition will also be decided on August 10. Then the individual event finals will be held, also on August 12.

(Translated by E. Nasta)