Romania Hosts the European Gymnastics Championships
Along with 36 other nations, Romania participates in the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships under way in Cluj Napoca until the 23rd of April
Mihai Pelin, 20.04.2017, 13:27
The
central Romanian city of Cluj Napoca is hosting the European Artistic
Gymnastics Championships 60 years since the latest edition to be hosted by
Romania, in Bucharest. Attending the opening ceremony, the youth and sports
minister Marius Dunca said gymnastics are an iconic sport in Romania, given the
large number of medals obtained over the years in European and world
competitions and at the Olympic Games.
274 gymnasts are competing this year,
168 male and 106 female, from 37 different countries. Romania is represented by
10 gymnasts, including household names Marian Dragulescu, Larisa Iordache and
Catalina Ponor. The Romanian team got off to a good start as many times
European and world champion Marian Dragulescu met his fans’ expectations and
qualified for the floor and vault finals. Dragulescu is Romania’s only male
gymnast to make it to the apparatus finals. Coach Ioan Suciu says the other
members of the male team failed to qualify because nerves got the better of
them.
The former great Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, who is in Cluj Napoca
herself, says she is sure Romania will win a medal and that Marian Dragulescu
will in her opinion win the gold in both finals. Nadia Comaneci is the
ambassador of this year’s edition of the European Championships. This autumn,
she will be the official spokesperson for the World Gymnastics Championships
hosted by Montreal, Canada. It was in Montreal in 1976 that she became the
first female gymnast to score a 10 in an international competition. The scoreboard was not designed
to display such a score, so the judges were forced to show it as 1.0.
Since
then, Romanian female gymnasts have won tens of Olympic gold, silver and bronze
medals. A force to be reckoned with for dozens of years, the Romanian female
gymnastics team saw a gradual demise in recent years and did not even qualify
for the Olympic Games held in Rio last year, something that hadn’t happened
since the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. However, at the European Championships held
last year in Bern, Switzerland, Marian Dragulescu won two silver medals for
Romania in the floor and vault competitions, while Catalina Ponor won two
bronze medals in the floor and beam events.
