The
\ncentral Romanian city of Cluj Napoca is hosting the European Artistic
\nGymnastics Championships 60 years since the latest edition to be hosted by
\nRomania, in Bucharest. Attending the opening ceremony, the youth and sports
\nminister Marius Dunca said gymnastics are an iconic sport in Romania, given the
\nlarge number of medals obtained over the years in European and world
\ncompetitions and at the Olympic Games. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
274 gymnasts are competing this year,
\n168 male and 106 female, from 37 different countries. Romania is represented by
\n10 gymnasts, including household names Marian Dragulescu, Larisa Iordache and
\nCatalina Ponor. The Romanian team got off to a good start as many times
\nEuropean and world champion Marian Dragulescu met his fans’ expectations and
\nqualified for the floor and vault finals. Dragulescu is Romania’s only male
\ngymnast to make it to the apparatus finals. Coach Ioan Suciu says the other
\nmembers of the male team failed to qualify because nerves got the better of
\nthem. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The former great Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, who is in Cluj Napoca
\nherself, says she is sure Romania will win a medal and that Marian Dragulescu
\nwill in her opinion win the gold in both finals. Nadia Comaneci is the
\nambassador of this year’s edition of the European Championships. This autumn,
\nshe will be the official spokesperson for the World Gymnastics Championships
\nhosted by Montreal, Canada. It was in Montreal in 1976 that she became the
\nfirst female gymnast to score a 10 in an international competition. The scoreboard was not designed
\nto display such a score, so the judges were forced to show it as 1.0. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Since
\nthen, Romanian female gymnasts have won tens of Olympic gold, silver and bronze
\nmedals. A force to be reckoned with for dozens of years, the Romanian female
\ngymnastics team saw a gradual demise in recent years and did not even qualify
\nfor the Olympic Games held in Rio last year, something that hadn’t happened
\nsince the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. However, at the European Championships held
\nlast year in Bern, Switzerland, Marian Dragulescu won two silver medals for
\nRomania in the floor and vault competitions, while Catalina Ponor won two
\nbronze medals in the floor and beam events. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Along with 36 other nations, Romania participates in the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships under way in Cluj Napoca until the 23rd of April<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":73109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[37508,29430,38915],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-73108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-european-artistic-gymnastics-championships","tag-marian-dragulescu","tag-nadia-comaneci"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n