Athlete of the Week – Handballer Bianca Bazaliu

Florin Orban, 12.10.2021, 13:45

The Romanian
women’s handball team on Sunday played its second match as part of the 2022
European Championship preliminaries. The Romanian handballers played Austria in
preliminary Group 2. Last week, Romania defeated the Faeroe Islands. Last
Sunday’s match against Austria was harder than most people had anticipated, the
final score being 33-all. Romania was favorite to win, although it was unable
to field its best player, Cristina Neagu, who has temporarily withdrawn from
the national squad. Romania dominated the first half, securing a five-goal lead
at half time, 16-11. In the second half, Austria made a spectacular comeback,
evened the odds and actually took the lead. Shortly before the final whistle,
the score was 32-29 for the host team. Romania tied the score, but Austria
scored 12 seconds before full time. In the last second, however, Romania, with
one player short following the red booking shown to Alina Ilie, scored the goal
that set the final score. Bianca Bazaliu was the top scorer, and for her
stellar performance, we have designated her Athlete of the Week on RRI.

Bianca Bazaliu
was born July 30, 1997 in Slatina. She made her debut at a local sports club.
At 14 years of age she was drafted in Romania’s Under-21 team. At the 2014
Under-21 World Cup, she was part of the team that won the gold medals. She was
the tournament’s second top scorer, with 76 goals scored, and was voted on the
dream team. Also in 2014 she played for CSM Bucharest, helping win the Champions
League in 2016. In 2019 she left CSM, transferring to Corona Brașov. After a
brief spell here, she eventually returned to Bucharest. She is now enrolled at
Podravka Koprivnica, a team performing in Champions League this season. So far,
Bianca has scored two goals on average in each match played for Podravka in
Champions League. (VP)