Gold and silver medals for Romanian rowing

Romania's Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis have won the first rowing gold medal of the Tokyo Games, in women's double sculls.

Florin Orban, 28.07.2021, 14:00

Romanian athletes Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis continue their dominant run with Olympic gold and Olympic best time in womens double sculls at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. New Zealand and the Netherlands came out second and third, respectively. The Romanian rowers led the race from the start and were never challenged. They led by two boat lengths with 500 meters to go and won the race in 6 minutes, 41 seconds and 3 hundredths of a second, a new Olympic best time, breaking the previous record set by British rowers in London in 2012, by 3 seconds.

Ancuta Bodnar said after the race: “We entered the race with a lot of self confidence, and we managed to win the medal we’ve been dreaming of. We made our dream come true, we made people at home proud and that makes us very happy. We started competing together in 2019. It’s been two tough years, without time off, without vacations, and we worked hard to reach our goal.”

In her turn, Simona Radis said: “It’s been a difficult race, conditions were difficult, but we handled the situation well. Besides winning the gold medal, we also broke the Olympic record and we set off on the right foot, because we are still at the beginning.”

Also on Wednesday, in men’s coxless four, Romanians Mihaita Tiganescu, Mugurel Semciuc, Stefan Berariu and Cosmin Pascari won silver, being outperformed by Australia that broke the Olympic record. Italy ranked third in the competition. The latest wins bring the number of medals Romania has won in Olympic rowing events to 20 gold, 20 silver and 9 bronze. Also on Wednesday, another three Romanian teams made it to the finals, namely, in women’s lightweight double sculls, womens 8th (W8+) sculls and men’s coxless pair.

In women’s lightweight double sculls Ionela Cozmiuc and Gianina Beleaga made it to the final with the third best time in the second semifinal. In men’s coxless pair, Marius Cozmiuc and Ciprian Tudosa won the first semifinal with the best time of both semifinals. Also, the Romanian womens 8th (W8+) team qualified to the final after having broken the world and Olympic record in the repechage, with a time of 5 minutes, 52 seconds and 99 hundredths of a second. The previous record in this event had been set by the American team in Lucerne, on July 14, 2013. At the current edition of the Olympic Games Romania has won two gold medals in rowing and one silver in the epee event. (EE)