Sports Weekend

Two Romanian crews got qualified on Thursday to the finals of the 2019 Canoe World Championship held in Szeged, Hungary. Ştefănica Ursu won the second semifinal in the simple canoe event on 500 m. On the same distance, the men’s 4 canoe crew made up of Leonid-Valentin Carp, Constantin Dîba, Gheorghe-Alexandru Stoian and Ştefan-Andrei Strat came 3rd in Heat 1, securing automatic passage to the final.

Florin Orban, 23.08.2019, 13:17

Two Romanian crews got qualified on Thursday to the finals of the 2019 Canoe World Championship held in Szeged, Hungary. Ştefănica Ursu won the second semifinal in the simple canoe event on 500 m. On the same distance, the men’s 4 canoe crew made up of Leonid-Valentin Carp, Constantin Dîba, Gheorghe-Alexandru Stoian and Ştefan-Andrei Strat came 3rd in Heat 1, securing automatic passage to the final.

Romania’s football vice-champions, FCSB, on Thursday took on, in Giurgiu, in the first leg of the Europa League playoffs, the Portuguese side Vitória Guimarães. The match ended in a goalless draw. The Romanian side had a few occasions to score, especially in the first part of the game. The Portuguese controlled the second part of the game but were no threat to goalkeeper Cristian Bălgrădean. The return match is scheduled for August 29 in Portugal.

Football matches counting for the 7th leg of Romania’s Premier League championship will be played at the weekend. On Friday Poli Iasi will play against Chindia Târgovişte and Universitatea Craiova will take on Astra Giurgiu. On Saturday Giurgiu will see the match pitting Academica Clinceni against Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe while in Cluj CFR will play against FC Botosani. On Sunday in Ovidiu Viitorul Constanţa takes on FC Voluntari while in Medias, Gaz Metan will play against FCSB. The last match of the leg is scheduled for Monday pitting Dinamo Bucharest against FC Hermannstadt. Before this leg, CFR and Poli Iasi are top of the classification with 14 points each.

The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, world’s no. 4, will play in the first round of the US Open, the year’s last Grand Slam tournament, against a player coming from the qualifiers, according to the drawing of lots held Thursday in New York. If Simona Halep goes to the 3rd round, she might meet Sorana Cârstea who is on the same table segment. Sorana, 106th in the WTA ranking will take on, in the first round, the Czech Katerina Siniakova (38 WTA) whom she has defeated so far in two matches. In 2017 Sorana Cârstea defeated Siniakova in the first round in Eastbourne 6-3, 6-2 and in 2018 she won in Madrid in the first round 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. (translation by L. Simion)