The year 2024 in sports(I)

A look back at the main sports event that hit the headlines in 2024

Radio România Internațional, 23.12.2024, 13:45

2024 was an auspicious year for Romanian sports. Romanian athletes’ performance at the Paris Olympics maintained Romania among the world’s elite nations, especially in rowing, a sports discipline where Romanian athletes put on a stellar performance.

The year’s first notable event was the Australian Open, held in Melbourne in January. No Romanian competitor represented Romania in the men’s singles, while in the women’s version of the tournament, no Romanian tennis player could go past the first round.

In the men’s doubles, Victor Cornea, jointly with India’s Nsriram Balaji, reached as far as the second round. In the women’s doubles and pairing up with Slovak-born Spanish tennis player Rebeka Masarova, Ana Bogdan stopped also in the second round. Also in January, in high diving, the Romanian Constantin Popovici became the new Red Bull Cliff Diving champion.

In February, 2024, Romanian wrestlers and weightlifters walked away with medals at the European wrestling championships in Bucharest and the weightlifting championships in Sofia. In wrestling, gold went to Andreea Ana in the 55-kilogram category. Silver went to Kateryna Zelenykh in the 65-kilogram category and to Alexandra Anghel in the 73-kilogram category. Bronze went to Denis Florin Mihai, in the 55-kilogram category and to Răzvan Arnăut in the 60-kilogram category, both in the Greek-Roman style. In weightlifting, Mihaela Cambei in the 49-kilogram category won gold in the snatch, clean-and-jerk styles and combined.

In the 71-kilogram category, Loredana Toma won gold in the snatch event and combined. In the clean-and-jerk event Valentin Ionadi Iancu won silver in the 61-kilogram category. Also in the clean-and-jerk event Ioana Mădălina Miron and Andreea Cotruţa won bronze, in the 45-and 59-kilogram category, respectively.

In March, the Kenyan-born Romanian athlete Joan Chelimo Melly won the half-marathon race in Paris. Joan set a new national record. Romanian athletes also compelled recognition in the European throws Cup, held in Portugal’s Leiria. Alin Firfirica won gold in discus throw, then Bianca Ghelber, in the hammer throw event and Alexandru Novac in the javelin throw event won silver. Also in the javelin throw event, this time as part of the U-23 contest, Vlad Alexandru Turcu walked away with bronze. In rugby, the Romania national team came in 4th as part of the 2024 edition of Rugby Europe championship, the second-tier competition after the Six Nations Tournament.

In April, Corona Braşov won the Erste Liga ice hockey regional competition. In the final, Corona defeated Hungarian opponents Ferencváros in four consecutive matches, two in Brasov and two in Budapest. Then in Bucharest, Hungarian tennis player Márton Fucsovics was the men’s single event as part of the ATP 250 Ţiriac Open, an event with 579 thousand euro in prize money all told. In the final, Fucsovics defeated Argentinean challenger Mariano Navone, cu 6-4, 7-5.

The European Rowing Championships in Szeged followed, with the Romanian delegation winning no less than eight medals, four gold, two silver and two bronze. Stepping onto the highest step of the podium were women’s lightweight coxed eight and the women’s pair crews as well as men’s double sculls crew. At the European Boxing Championships in Belgrade, Lăcrămioara Perijoc won silver in the 54-kilogram category, while Claudia Nechita wo bronze in the 57-kilogram category.

At the European women’s gymnastics championship held in Italy’s Rimini in May, the Romanian delegation won two medals. Both silver medals were won by Sabrina Maneca Voinea in the beam and floor finals. In the nations; competition, Romania came in 4th. In women’s handball, CSM Bucharest wasted the opportunity to qualify for the Champions league’s final tournament. In the quarterfinals, holders CSM was defeated in both legs of the tie against French challengers Metz Handball, at home, 24-27, and away, 23-29.

The summer’s first major event was the European football championship in Germany. The national squad met the set target, that of reaching the knockout phase and even won Group E, which included Belgium, Slovakia and Ukraine. The Romanians managed to put on a good performance in all their fixtures and they kind of struck it lucky in the match against Ukraine, which they won, 2-nil. They then they lost to Belgium, a far better team, nil-2 and drew level, 1-all, in the game against Slovakia, one of the tournament’s pleasant surprises,

For Romania, the team spirit prevailed in each of the fixtures they played at EURO 2024. They fought all throughout the tournament, they put in a lot of effort and determination they could not make up for the difference in status which separates the Romanians from Europe’s great teams. They were unable to go past the round of 16, having lost, in Munich, the game against the Low Countries team, nil-3. However, the Romanians benefitted from the tremendous boost offered by the fans, who were in the stands all the time and frantically supported the team.