Sports Roundup
The latest in sports
Florin Orban, 16.12.2024, 13:45
The European women’s handball championship has ended. In the final in Vienna on Sunday, Norway defeated Denmark 31 to 23. In the final ranking of the competition, Romania took 11th place. In a ceremony also held in Vienna, but on Saturday, former Romanian handball players Luminiţa Huţupan-Dinu and Carmen Amariei were included in the Gallery of European handball legends, the EHF Hall of Fame. In this classification, inaugurated in 2023, there are two more Romanians: Narcisa Lecuşanu and Cristina Vărzaru.
Now swimming. Romania ended the World Aquatics Swimming Championships, also known as shorts course worlds, in Budapest without having any athlete qualified in the finals. The best result was obtained by Andrei-Theodor Proca, a swimmer who ranked 12th in the 1,500 meters event. Robert Badea, who set a new national record in the 400-meter mixed race, also stood out. The time he achieved, the 11th of the heats, was still not good enough to ensure him a place in the eight finals.
Now rugby. Dinamo Bucharest won Romania’s Rugby Cup, after defeating Ştiinţa Baia Mare in the final, score 29-24. The Bucharest team scored five tries, namely two by Mihai Graure and the other three by Ovidiu Cojocaru, Joe Perez and Jondre Williams. Two of these were converted by Helarius Kisting. Kefetnse Mahlo, Ghiorghi Menabde and Adriaan Ludick scored tries for Ştiinţa Baia mare, all converted by Paul Popoaia, who also scored from a penalty kick.
Let’s move on to football. Romania has found out its opponents in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. Thus, the Romanian footballers will be part of group H, along with Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus and San Marino. On March 21 next year, the first match will take place in Bucharest pitting Bosnia against Herzegovina. The winners of the 12 preliminary groups will qualify directly. Competing for the other four places available for the European zone, are the 12 teams ranked second in the groups and the best ranked group winners of the League of Nations, 2024-25 edition, that did not qualify following the preliminaries.
At the weekend, games were played counting for the Romanian Superliga, stage number 20. On Friday, Hermannstadt defeated in Botoşani 2-1, and Dinamo defeated Poli Iasi 2-0 in Bucharest. On Saturday, Oţelul ended the game in Galaţi with UTA in a draw, 1-1, then, in Craiova, Universitatea defeated Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe 2-1. In the last match of the day, Universitatea Cluj defeated Petrolul Ploieşti 4-1 at home. Two matches were played on Sunday: Unirea Slobozia with CFR Cluj and Farul Constanţa with FCSB, both ending with the same score: 1-1. Monday sees the last match of the stage: Rapid Bucharest with Gloria Buzău. Universitatea Cluj leads the ranking, with 36 points. Next is Dinamo, with 35 and FCSB, with 34. (LS)
