Sports Roundup
The latest from rugby, tennis, women's handball and football
Florin Orban, 14.02.2022, 13:45
Romania’s national rugby team this past Saturday in Bucharest defeated Portugal, 37 to 27. The match counted towards the 2nd round of Rugby Europe Championship 2022. Romania’s Dragoș Ser, Ovidiu Cojocaru, Alexandru Savin and André Gorin scored four tries. Adding to the national squad’s points was Ionel Melinte. He converted all the tries as well as three penalty kicks. According to the competition’s as-it-stands table, Romania is 2nd placed, with 8 points, second only to Spain, with 9 points. All told, Rugby Europe Championship’s 2021 and 2022 editions are a qualification criterion for the 2023 edition of the World Cup.
Romanian tennis player Irina Begu last week reached as far as the semifinals of the WTA tournament in Sankt Petersburg, an event with 768 thousand USD in prize money. In the semifinals, top-seeded Greece challenger Maria Sakkari defeated Begu, 6-4, 6-7, 6-4. In turn, Sakkari lost to Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit in the final this past Sunday.
In news from women’s handball, CSM Bucharest’s scheduled Champions League fixture against Rostov Don this past weekend was postponed because of the COVID-19 infections reported for CSM Bucharest. In the European League’s group C, on Saturday, Magura Cisnadie was trounced by Norwegian team Storhamar, 35-18. Măgura Cisnadie are highly unlikely to advance to the quarterfinals. We recall that at the green table Magura Cisnadie lost the away game they did not play against Lada Togliati, nil-10, because of the COVID-19 infections. In Group D on Sunday, SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea drew, 30-all, in the away match against Danish opponents Viborg. SCM have thus booked their ticket for the European League’s quarterfinals. Also on Sunday, in Group B this time, Minaur Baia Mare drew in the away game they played against Polish team Zaglebie Lublin, 23-all. Minaur climbed up to the runner-up position in the table and are highly likely to advance to the competition’s next stage.
Matches counting towards League One’s football championship were played this past weekend. On Friday, in Mioveni, in the south, Rapid Bucharest and Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe drew, 1-all. On Saturday, in Ovidiu, in the south-east, Farul Constanta defeated FC Voluntari, 3-all, while in Medias, in the west, the local side Gaz Metan sustained a 1-2 defeat by CFR Cluj. On Sunday, FC Arges secured a 1-nil home win against Mioveni. In Arad, in the West, UTA held Dinamo Bucharest to a blank draw. In Bucharest, FCSB secured a 3-2 win against Chindia Targoviste. Four rounds ahead of the final of the regular season, CFR Cluj are at the top of the League One table. FCSB are the runner-up team, with 6 points less than leader CFR.
(EN)
