<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The year 2021 worldwide, just like the previous year,
\nwas affected by the new Covid-19 pandemic. The world of sports was no exception
\nto that, but those involved succeeded to cope with the situation. Competitions
\nwere held, that had initially been scheduled in 2020, such as the European Football championship or the Olympic Games, even though the latter event was
\nheld under special safety conditions. We have so far come up with the first
\npart of the 2021 retrospective in sports, specifically, we have covered the
\nfirst six months of the year. We’re yet again spinning the yarn of 2021 sports
\nyear. In July, tennis player Elena Gabriela Ruse won the Hamburg tournament,
\nthe first WTA success for the Romanian. Ruse secured a 7-6, 6-4 win against Germany’s Andreea Petcovic. Prior to the
\ntournament, Elena Ruse was 198th placed according to the WTA rankings. She came
\nstraight from the qualifiers and her trail back then included wins over some of
\nthe tournament’s seeded players, among whom Ukraine’s Daria Yastremska, the
\ntop-seeded player in Hamburg. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Olympic Games in Tokyo also kicked off in July. In
\nTokyo, four times did the Romanian delegation step onto the steps of the
\npodium, while three of the medals went to the rowing crews. The women’s double
\nsculls crew made of Simona Radi\u0219 and Ancu\u021ba
\nBodnar won the Olympic title. Silver went to the men’s four coxless crew made
\nof Mih\u0103i\u0163\u0103 \u0162ig\u0103nescu, Mugurel Semciuc, \u015etefan Berariu and Cosmin Pascari. The
\nRomanian men’s pair made of Ciprian Tudos\u0103 and Marius Cozmiuc also won silver. The Romanian delegation’s only singles
\nmedal was won by veteran epee fencer Ana-Maria
\nPopescu, who also walked home with silver. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In August, tennis player Horia Tecau and the German Kevin
\nKrawietz played the finals in Toronto, a tournament with almost three million USD up
\nfor grabs. Top-seeded all-Croatian pair made of Nikola Metkic and Mate Pavic overpowered
\ntheir Romanian-Dutch challengers. Raluca Olaru and Nadia Kicenok won the
\nwomen’s doubles final of the WTA tournament in Chicago, securing a 7-6, 5-7,
\n10-8 win against Japanese – Ukrainian pair made of Makoto Ninomiya and Nadia
\nKicenok’s twin sister, Ljudmila. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Romanian sports legend Ivan Patzaichin passed away in
\nSeptember. The greatest Romanian rower of all time died at the age of 71
\nbecause of a fatal illness. In the Polish locality Kruszwica, the Romanian
\nrowing delegation won ten medals, of which five were gold and five silver, as
\npart of the European U-21 Rowing Championship. The women’s coxed four and coxless four crews won the Olympic titles. The coxed eight and the lightweight singles crews
\nalso won gold. Also gold went to the men’s coxless four crew. Romania came in 1st according to the nations’ final
\nrankings. Also in September, at the US Open, British tennis player, 18-year-old
\nEmma Raducanu, whose father is Romanian, won the tournament. Emma was the only
\ntennis player coming straight from the qualifiers who won a Grand Slam
\ntournament. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In October, the women’s doubles event as part of the
\nWTA Nur-Sultan tournament in Kazakhstan was won by Monica Niculescu and
\nGermany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam, who outclassed the all-Russian pair made of Anghelina
\nGabueva and Anastasia Zaharova, c6-2, 4-6, 10-5. Then in Moscow, Raluca Olaru
\nand Ukrainian Nadia Kicenok reached as far as the tournament’s finals. In November, swimmer David Popovici won gold in the
\n200m freestyle event as part of the short-course European swimming
\nChampionships in Kazan, Russia. 17-year-old Popovici won his first European seniors’
\ntitle, also setting a new national record. Robert Glinta won silver and bronze
\nin the 100m and 50m backstroke events. Then Romania’s men’s tennis team
\nadvanced to the qualifiers of the Davis Cup final tournament. In Cluj, the
\nRomanian team outperformed the national team of Peru, 4-nil. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The World IHF Women’s Championships were held in Spain
\nin December. With one of the world’s best handballers, Cristina Neagu, absent
\nfrom the line-up, Romania came in 13th according to the final
\nrankings. However, the Romanian women’s handball team is the only national
\nsquad to have competed in all editions of the World IHF Championships. In
\nDecember, fencer Ana-Maria Popescu officially retired from competition, having
\nwon the silver medal in the World Epee Cup in Dubai. Previously, Popescu had
\nbeen awarded the World Cup Trophy for the 2020-2021 competition season. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Our retrospective of the year 2021 in sports has come
\nto an end. We keep our hopes high for 2022 to be a better year, for
\ncompetitors, head-coaches and sports lovers alike. <\/p>\n
(EN)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romanian sports in the second year of the pandemic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":90486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40940],"tags":[41922,30725,32212,30416,28939],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-122273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-crew","tag-epee","tag-fencing","tag-rowing","tag-tennis"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n