Sports Flash

A roundup of the most important sporting events

Florin Orban, 05.05.2022, 13:45

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep was ousted from the Mutua Madrid
Open, after losing to Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals. For
reaching this stage, the Romanian was awarded a 170 thousand-euro check and 215
WTA points. This was the first tournament for Simona Halep since the start of
the WTA season with her new coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, sitting in her box. A
champion in Madrid in 2016 and 2017, as well as a finalist in 2014 and 2019,
Halep has so far won 30 matches in the Madrid Open main draw, being outranked
only be Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in this respect, the Czech player
having won the Madrid Open three times as well as a total of 32 matches.

At the World Women’s Boxing Championships, set to kick off on
Monday, Romania will be represented by five athletes. 40-year-old Steluța Duță
will compete in the 48-kg category. Eugenia Anghel will represent Romania in
the 50-kg category, Lăcrămioara Perijoc in the 54-kg category, Claudia Nechita
in the 57-kg category and finally Alexandra Petcu in the 81-kg category. 398
athletes from 84 countries will take part in a total of 12 categories at the
World Boxing Championships.

May 4 marked 98 years since Romania won its first Olympic medal. At
the 1924 Paris Olympics, Romania’s rugby team scooped bronze. This was the
seventh edition of the Olympic Games, and Romania was represented in four
Olympic events: football, tennis, shooting sport and rugby. A total of three
teams competed in the rugby event: France, the United States and Romania. Our
Romanian players lost to the host team 59-3, and then to the USA 39-0, but
still they went down in history for their achievement.

In news from football, on May 4 Anghel Iordănescu turned 72. As a
player, Iordănescu played for Steaua
Bucharest. In 1986, he won the European Champions’ Cup, both as a player and as
an assistant coach. Three years later, Steaua reached the final again, with Iordănescu this time as
its headcoach. In 1994, while training Romania’s national team, Iordănescu reached the
quarterfinals of the World Cup in the USA. (VP)