The Main Sporting Events of 2025 (second part)
A roundup of the main sporting events in 2025
Florin Orban, 24.12.2025, 13:45
In Europe, the first half of the year is devoted to continental competitions. The year’s second half usually sees the world cups and championships, which this year had Romanian athletes as participants. But before talking about the major results of world championships let’s note that the month of July of the year 2025 started with five medals won by the Romanian athletes at the European Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships in Samorin, Slovakia.
Out of these medals, two were gold, one silver and two bronze. The gold medalists were Robert Badea, winner of the 400-meter medley event and Daria Silișteanu who won the 100-meter backstroke race. Badea also walked away with silver from the 200-meter medley race while Silișteanu reaped bronze in the 50-meter backstroke event. Also from the Romanian delegation, Claudia Prisecariu came third in the 200-meter backstroke race. Also in July in Wimbledon, Sorana Cîrstea and Russian Anna Kalinskaya, made it to the quarters of the women’s doubles. That was Sorana’s best result in the doubles event of a Grand Slam tournament.
The month of July ended with the first world titles won by Romania in 2025, at the 22nd edition of the World Aquatics Championship in Singapore. Romania came 20th in the countries raking with three medals out of which two gold won by David Popovici in the 100 and 200 meter freestyle races. Another Romanian athlete, diver Constantin Popovici came third in the high diving event.
The month of August kicked off with the successes of the athlete delegation that represented Romania at the European Shooting Championship in Chateauroux, France. In the senior competition, our athletes obtained two gold medals. The first gold medalist was Peter Sidi, an athlete born in Hungary, who won the 300-meter standard open rifle contest and 300-meter three positions. In the junior competition Luca Joldea won gold for Romania in the 50-meter free pistol, while David Matei came second in the skeet solo event.
Romania’s under-twenty athletes won two medals in the 2025 European Athletics U20 Championship held in Tampere, Finland. Daria Vranceanu became silver medalist in the triple-jump event while Ștefania Uță stepped onto the podium’s first step after winning the 400-meter hurdles.
At the 2025 FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships held in Rio de Janeiro in late August, Romanian athlete Amalia Lica won silver in the clubs final. We recall that back in 1992, Irina Deleanu got the bronze medal for Romania in the rope contest of the World Championship in Brussels. At present Irina Deleanu is the incumbent chair of the Romanian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation.
On that day in August, tennis player Sorana Cîrstea won the third WTA tournament in her career. She compelled international recognition in the WTA 250 tournament held in Cleveland, a competition with 275 thousand dollars in prize money. The Romanian managed to outperform Ann Li of the United States, 6-2, 6-4.
The month of September confirmed the value of the Romanian rowing. 12 Romanian crews participated in the World Rowing Championships held in Shanghai, China. Half of these crews stepped on the podium with six medals won, two gold and four silver. The Romanian female double scull and the mixed eight became gold medalists in China. The Romanian male double scull and four as well as the women’s crews of four and eight got silver in Shanghai.
At the World Weightlifting Championships held in Norway in October, Mihaela Cambei in the 53-kilogram category won gold in the snatch and silver in the clean and jerk events. In the snatch contest the Romanian lifted 90 kilograms in her first attempt. She failed an attempt at 93, but came back and managed to lift 94 kilograms in the third attempt. Her main contender, North-Korean Hyon-gyong Kang, managed only 93 in the second attempt and failed to clear 96 in the snatch event. However, Kang compelled recognition in the clean and jerk and total.
Also in October, Romania’s football side managed one of the most beautiful wins of late. Our footballers secured a one-nil win against Austria in a match counting towards the preliminaries of the World Cup 2026. Sadly their victory proved to be too little, too late, and Romania ended third in the group’s ranking. In late October, the Romanian delegation walked away with no medal from the World Artistic Gymnastic Championship in Jakarta. The best Romanian show was put up by Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, who ended fourth in the floor contest.
The performance of the month of November also came from artistic gymnastics. At the World Junior Championships in Manila, the Philippines, Romanian Alexia Blănaru won bronze in the vault event with 13 points and 566 thousandths. She was outperformed by American Lavienna Crain and Misa Nishiyama of Japan. In the team contest, Romania ranked fifth.
The end of the year was dominated by the World Women’s Handball Championships held in Germany and the Netherlands. Romania’s national side ranked 9th which was their best result in the past 10 years in the aforementioned competition. The Romanians defeated Croatia, Japan, Senegal and Switzerland and lost only to Denmark and Hungary, two of the world’s best handball sides. The Danish are Europe’s vice-champions and the Hungarian team won bronze in the latest continental competition.
(bill)
