Sports Roundup

The latest from womens handball, indoor athletics, rugby and football

Florin Orban, 04.03.2019, 12:57

The situation of Romanian womens handball team CSM Bucharest in the Champions League main Group 2 is getting complicated. CSM sustained 23-22 away defeat by Slovenian opponents Krim Ljubljana. Ahead of the last round in the main group stage, CSM are 3rd-placed in the group, on a par with the 4th-placed team, Hungarys Ferencváros.

CSM has already booked its ticket in the quarterfinals, but is to find out its opponent according to its place in the final rankings. If they eventually come 3rd in the group, CSM will be pitched against the 2nd-placed team in the other group, most likely Russian team Rostov Don. In the last round this coming Friday, CSM Bucharest faces German squad Thüringer.

News from indoor athletics, now. The European Athletics Indoor Championships have recently drawn to a close in Glasgow. The Romanian delegation, made up of 12 athletes, walked home with no medal. This past Sunday, Alina Rotaru provided the best result for the Romanian delegation, coming in 5th, with a 6.64-meter jump in the final of the long jump event. The other Romanian athlete who got through to the final, Florentina Marincu-Iuşco, came in 8th with a jump of 6.49 m. The gold medal went to Serbias Ivana Spanovic, who succeeded a jump of 6.99 meters.

In Madrid this past Sunday, Romanias national rugby squad sustained an 18-21 defeat by Spain, in a fixture counting towards Rugby Europe Championship. It is the second defeat for the Romanian rugby team in this competition. Interesting to mention, though, is that the Romanians had a 13-nil lead during the game. For the Romanian lineup, Ionut Dumitru and Vladut Zaharia succeeded tries on 7 and 68 minutes, respectively. Then Florin Vlaicu converted two penalty kicks and managed a successful conversion. Spain managed three tries, all of them successfully converted.

We go out with news from football, as this past weekend saw matches counting towards the 26th-round of League One, the last round of the regular season. Qualifying for the play-offs were CFR Cluj, FCSB, Universitatea Craiova, Astra Giurgiu, Viitorul Constanţa and Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe. The teams that have got through to the play-out were FC Botoşani, Poli Iaşi, Dinamo, Hermannstadt, Gaz Metan, Dunărea, FC Voluntari and Concordia Chiajna.

(translated by: Eugen Nasta)