Sports Roundup

Florin Orban, 25.03.2019, 12:49

Romania won two medals at the 2019 European
10-m shooting Championship hosted by Osijek, Croatia. Laura Coman won gold in
the 10-m air rifle event after two rounds of tie-breaking shots. She was
followed by Nina Christen of Switzerland and Franziska Peer of Austria in the
standings. Another Romanian, Roxana Sidi, finished in 6th place. The
Romanian team, made up of Laura Coman, Roxana Sidi and Eliza Molnar, grabbed
bronze in the women’s air rifle team event, defeating Austria in the bronze
final. Russia won gold after winning the final against Italy.

We move on to news from tennis. Romanian tennis
player Simona Halep, world no. 3, qualified to the round of 16 at the Miami
Open totaling over 9 million dollars in prize money. In the round of 32 Haep
had a difficult time defeating Polona Hercog of Slovenia, final score 5-7, 7-6,
6-2. Simona will next play Venus Williams of the US, who previously ousted
Russia’s Daria Kasatkina, 6-3, 6-1. Halep and Williams are tied in direct
matches, 3-all, although the Romanian has won the last three matches. They last
played each other at the Australian Open in the third round, a match Halep won
6-2, 6-3.

Also at the Miami Open the pair made up of
Raluca Olaru and Darija Jurak of Croatia has advanced to the quarterfinals of the
women’s doubles. Olaru and Jurak knocked out Lara Arruabarrena of Spain and
Great Britain’s Heather Watson, 7-5, 6-3. In the next phase the two will face
Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Ashleigh Barty of Australia, who in the
previous round defeated Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia and Alexandra Panova of
Russia, 6-3, 1-6, 10-7.

The Romanian women’s handball team lost 36-23
to Denmark in the last fixture of the Golden League tournament held in France.
The Romanians also lost the other two games, 18-28 against France and 27-31
against Norway.

We end with news from football. The city of
Cluj on Tuesday will host the second match of the 2020 European Championship
preliminaries. Romania will play the Faeroe Islands in Group F. In the first
match on Saturday Romania lost 2-1 against Sweden away from home.