The World
\nFencing Championships were held last week in Tallinn, Estonia. In the women’s
\nepee singles, Ana-Maria Popescu, better known to fencing lovers as Ana-Maria
\nBranza, reaped gold, after defeating Violetta Kolobova of Russia 15-13 in the
\nfinal. Ranking third were fencers from China: Yiwen Sun and Mingye Zhu.
\nFollowing this result Ana-Maria is now ranked 3rd in world rankings,
\nwhich guarantees qualification to the Olympic Games due in Tokyo next year. For
\nher performance we have designated Ana-Maria Popescu Athlete of the Week on
\nRRI.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The competition
\nin Tallinn was the first Ana-Maria Popescu enrolled in together with her new
\ncoach, Mihai Popa. Popescu told the media that she’s been on a very good terms
\nwith her new coach. Our fencer will now undergo a period of training, to be
\nfollowed by the competitions in Havana and Doha in January, which will be key
\nto securing qualification to the Tokyo Olympics. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Ana Maria
\nPopescu was born on November 26, 1984. For the first time ever Ana Maria
\nPopescu compelled international recognition in 2001, when she won the title at
\nthe World Cadets Championships held in Poland. In 2002, Ana Maria Popescu
\nreaped the world juniors’ title at the world championships in Turkey. 2002
\nturned out to be a special year for Ana Maria Popescu, who walked away with
\nsilver from the World Seniors Championships held in Lisbon. At the Athens
\nOlympics in 2004, when all Romanians’ hopes were pinned on Ana Maria Popescu,
\nthe Romanian fencer came in 16th, an unassuming position back then.
\nIn 2008 in Bejing, however, Ana Maria Popescu braced up and won the silver
\nmedal, the highest distinction for Romanian fencing at the Beijing Olympics. In
\n2010 and 2011, Ana Maria Popescu was part of the Romanian side that won the
\nworld epee title in the nations’ competition. In 2013, at the European
\nChampionships in Croatia, Ana Maria Popescu won gold in the women’s singles and
\nsilver in the nations’ competition. At the European Championships held in
\nStrasbourg in 2014 and in Montreux, in 2015, Ana Maria Popescu won gold in the
\nnations’ competition. Ana Maria Popescu’s career best so far occurred in 2016.
\nAt the Olympic Games in Rio, the Romanian fencer was part of the lineup that
\nwalked away with gold from the nations’ competition.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(Translated by V. Palcu)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ana-Maria Popescu has scooped yet another title<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":120114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40940],"tags":[35317,41750,41749],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-120113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-ana-maria-popescu","tag-romanias-fencing-team","tag-world-fencing-championships-in-tallinn"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n