Sports flash
The latest from athletics, women's handball and tennis
Florin Orban, 03.08.2023, 13:45
Athlete Alina Rotaru has qualified to the 2024 edition of the Olympic Games in Paris. At the Inneringer Weitsprung Meeting in Germany, a contest won by the Romanian, Alina met the long-jump set standard, with a jump of 6 meters and 69 centimeters, a personal record for Alina Rotaru. With a jump of 6 meters and 84 centimeters, stepping onto the second step of the podium was a German athlete, Maryse Luzolo, while stepping onto the third step of the podium was another German athlete, Laura Raquel Müller, with 6 meters and 49 de centimeters. Alina Rotaru is the sixth Romanian athlete to have qualified to the Paris Olympics. Rotaru thus joined Andrea Miklos in the 400m category, Marathon runner Delvine Meringor, swimmers David Popovici and Vlad Stancu, as well as pugilist Lăcrămioara Perijoc.
In news from women’s handball, this past Wednesday Romanian title holders CSM Bucharest defeated Universitatea Craiova, 35-25, in a friendly game hosted by the Multi-Purpose Sports Hall in Bucharest. With five goals scored, CSM’s most efficient player was Alexandra Dindiligan. Romania’s vice-champion team, Rapid Bucharest, takes part in a friendly tournament in Denmark. In their debut game, Rapid sustained a 36-39 defeat by Danish opponents Ikast Håndbold and were yet again defeated by German team Bietigheim, 22-31. On Friday, Rapid go against French team Metz Handball.
As part of the WTA 500 tennis tournament in Washington, an event with 780 thousand USD in prize money all told, the best-placed Romanian according to the WTA rankings, 32nd, Sorana Cirstea, was unable to move past the tournament’s round of 16. Cirstea sustained a 1-6, 3-6 defeat by WTA 18th placed, Russian opponent Lyudmila Samsonova. Cirstea has booked a place among the tournament’s top 16 players, which earned her a cheque worth 11, 600 USD and 55 WTA points. In the women’s doubles, pairing up with Chilean Alexa Guarachi, Monica Niculescu has qualified to the quarterfinals. In the round of 16, Niculescu and Guarachi defeated the Belarus-Brazilian pair made of Lidia Morozova and Ingrid Gamarra Martins, 7-6, 7-5. Monica Niculescu and her Brazilian partner received a cheque worth 7.200 USD and were granted 100 WTA points in women’s doubles. We recall in 2016 Monica Niculescu won the women’s doubles version of the tournament in Washington, pairing up with Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer.
