Sports roundup
The latest from water polo, tennis and football
Florin Orban, 03.07.2023, 01:45
The European Games in Krakow drew to a close on Sunday. All told, Romania won 17 medals, of which 6 gold, 6 silver and 5 bronze. Gold went to mountain biker Vlad Dascălu and athlete Claudia Bobocea in the 1,500m race. Also winning gold were Kinga Barabasi and Apor Gyorgydeak in the women’s and men’s individual teqball events, respectively to Bernadette Szocs, in the individual table tennis event, as well as to Romania’s national women’s table tennis team, in the nations’ competition.
Romanian national men’s water polo team came in 6th at the World Cup in Los Angeles. In the fixtures for the 5-11 positions, Romania defeated Olympic champion Serbia, 17-14, and lost to Greece, 8-11. We recall our national team also succeeded a noteworthy performance a week ago, qualifying to the 2024 edition of the European Championship’s final tournament.
In news from tennis, in the final of the WTA 250 tournament in Bad Homburg, an event with 260 thousand USD in prize money, Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Japan’s Eri Hozumi were defeated in the women’s doubles final by Lidia Morozova of the Belarus and Gamarra Martins of Brazil, 6-nil, 7-6. For their performance in Germany, Niculescu and Hozumi were handed a cheque worth 6, 090 USD and were granted 180 WTA points.
The European U-21 football championship jointly hosted by Georgia and Romania has now reached its semifinal stage. The semifinalist teams are Israel, Spain, England and Ukraine. In this past Saturday’s quarterfinal fixtures in Bucharest, Spain defeated Switzerland, 2-1 in extra time. In Tbilisi, Israel grabbed a 4-3 win against Georgia after the penalty shootout. In Cluj on Sunday, Ukraine defeated France, 3-1, while in Georgia’s Kutaisi, England grabbed a 1-nil win against Portugal. The semifinals are scheduled on Wednesday. In Batumi, Israel goes against England, while on Bucharest’s Steaua stadium Spain takes on Ukraine.
