In July, the highlight was, of course, the Wimbledon tennis
\ntournament. Romania’s best performer in the women’s competition was Monica
\nNiculescu. Together with Hao-Ching Chan of Taiwan, Niculescu reached the
\nwomen’s doubles final, where she lost to Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina
\nof Russia, 6-nil, 6-nil. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Closer to home, the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv hosted by European
\nKayak-Canoe Championships. The pair made up of Leonid Carp and Victor Mihalachi
\ngrabbed silver in the 500-m double-canoe race. Also in July, Romania hosted the
\nBRD Bucharest Open, the most prestigious WTA tournament in Romania. Irina Begu
\nput on a stellar performance. She won both the singles and the doubles events,
\ntogether with another Romanian, Raluca Olaru. In the singles, Begu didn’t lose
\na single set throughout the entire competition. In the final match she defeated
\nJulia Goerges of Germany, 6-3, 7-5. In the doubles competition, Irina Begu and
\nRaluca Olaru defeated Elise Mertens of Belgium and Demi Schuurs of the
\nNetherlands, 6-3, 6-3. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
August occasioned a new edition of the World Kayak-Canoe
\nChampionships, hosted by the Czech Republic. The only medal for Romania was won
\nby Victor Mihalachi and Leonid Carp in the men’s double-canoe 500-m race. From
\nthe world of wrestling, Alina Vuc grabbed silver for Romania in the 48-kg
\ncategory at the World Championships hosted by Paris, France. It was the first
\nmedal ever won by a Romanian wrestler in the history of the World
\nChampionships. In tennis, the pair made up of Horia Tecau of Romania and Dutch
\nJean-Julien Rojer won the doubles final in the ATP tournament of Winston-Salem,
\nhosted by North Carolina, the United States. In the final match, Tecau and
\nRojer won 6-3, 6-4 against Julio Peralta of Chile and Horacio Zeballos of
\nArgentina. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
In September, the two tennis player won the doubles event at the US
\nOpen, one of the best achievements in Romanian sports in 2017. In the final
\nmatch Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer outperformed Feliciano Lopez and Marc
\nLopez of Spain.<\/p>\n
At the European Aerobic Gymnastics Championships hosted by Ancona,
\nItaly, Romania won three gold medals and three bronze medals. Romania’s
\nathletes prevailed in the team and trio and group events. The bronze medals
\nwere won in the trop, aero dance and mixed pair events. Andrea Bogati had a
\nparticularly remarkable performance, contributing to no less than four medals
\nwon by Romania.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
Also in September the American city of Florida hosted the World
\nRowing Championships, which marked Romania’s comeback to the elite of world
\nrowing. Ionela-Livia Lehaci and Gianina-Elena Beleaga won the women’s
\nlightweight double-scull event, while the eight crew, made up of Ioana
\nVrinceanu, Viviana-Iuliana Bejinariu, Mihaela Petrila, Iuliana Popa, Madalina
\nBeres, Denisa Tilvescu, Adelina Bogus, Laura Oprea and cox Daniela Druncea won
\ngold. Unfortunately, the World Gymnastics Championships hosted by Montreal,
\nCanada, brought no medals for Romania. The closest who came on stepping onto
\nthe podium was Marian Dragulescu, Romania’s veteran athlete, who ranked 4th
\nin the vault finals. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
The highlight of October was Simona Halep climbing to the top
\nposition in women’s tennis rankings. Halep became the world’s number one tennis
\nplayer after reaching the finals of the WTA tournament in Beijing. Halep had an
\nexcellent run in Beijing, ousting 6-2, 6-2 Maria Sharapova of Russia, who
\ndenied Halep’s first win in the French Open in 2014. Then came a clear win
\nagainst another rival, Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, 6-2, 6-4, who actually denied
\nHalep’s second attempt at winning Roland Garros earlier this year.
\nUnfortunately, Halep lost the final to Caroline Garcia of France, 4-6, 6-7,
\nalthough did not alter the world standings. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
In November, the Romanian handball club CSM Bucharest won the
\nChampions League Group A, with 10 points in six games. The Romanian side has
\nadvanced to the competition’s main group phase with six points. CSM has been
\ndrawn in a Group 1 alongside Gyor of Hungary, Rostov-Don of Russia, Nyk\u00f8bing
\nFalster H\u00e5ndboldclub and Midtjylland, both of Denmark, and Slovenia’s Krim
\nLjubljana. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The month of December brought some good results in weightlifting. At
\nthe World Championships hosted by Anaheim, the United States, Romania grabbed four
\nmedals. Loredana Toma swept the board in the women’s 63-kg category, winning
\nthe snatch, clean and jerk and total events. Dumitru Captari won bronze in the
\nsnatch event in the men’s 77-kg category. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The last important competition of the year was the European Handball
\nChampionship of Germany. After a good start in Group A, Romania was ousted in
\nthe round of last 16 by the Czech Republic. The trophy went to France, who
\ndefeated Norway in the final. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A look back at the highlights of the year in Romanian sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":75031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40940],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-117664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n