The Athletes of the Week– Table tennis players Eduard Ionescu and Darius Movileanu
The most significant Romanian sporting achievement of the past week took place in Central Asia.
Florin Orban, 22.09.2026, 13:45
A major international table tennis tournament has recently took place in Kazakhstan. The WTT Star Contender Astana 2026 event had prizes up for grabs worth 300,000 dollars and ranks among the top competitions on the world circuit. Romanian players were among the standout performers at this year’s edition; Eduard Ionescu and Darius Movileanu won the men’s doubles event, and Radio Romania International designated them Athletes of the Week.
On their path to winning the trophy, Ionescu and Movileanu secured four consecutive victories. They first faced the French pair Flavien Coton and Thibault Poret, defeating them 3–0. In the quarterfinals, they overcame a Chinese duo, Li Hechen and Zhou Guanhong, in a dramatic match where the Romanians turned the score around after losing the first two sets, ultimately winning with the score 3–2. Next, in the semifinals, they faced another Chinese pair, Zhou Qihao and Xue Fei, beating them 3–1. Finally, in the title match against Russians Nikita Artemenko and Denis Ivonin, the Romanians triumphed 3–1.
Eduard Ionescu is from Buzău, where he was born on November 9, 2004. He was the European junior champion in 2022 and 2023. He competes in the German league for Saarbrücken Tischtennis, a team with which he won the Champions League in 2024. In Romania, a country that allows dual registration, he plays for Steaua București. At his first Olympic Games, held in Paris in 2024, he was eliminated in the second round of the singles event.
Darius Movileanu was born in Târgoviște on May 10, 2005. He was equally a European champion at the cadet and junior levels, achievements that early on established him as the leader of his generation. Domestically, he competes for the Steaua Bucharest club, where he teams up with Eduard Ionescu. Internationally, he was under contract with the French club Saint-Denis TT93. He currently lives in Germany and plays for Liebherr Ochsenhausen. (LS)
