Sports Weekend

Florin Orban, 26.11.2021, 14:50

In the World Table Tennis Championships held in
Houston, USA, the Romanian player Bernadette Szőcs qualified into the
eighth-finals. In the 3rd round, she defeated the South Korean Jeon
Jihee, 4-2. In another 3rd-round match, Andreea Dragoman was
outplayed by Suthasini Sawettabut (Thailand), 4-2. In the women’s doubles, Elizabeta
Samara and Andreea Dragoman will play in the eighth-finals, after beating the
Egyptians Yousra Helmy and Farah Abdel-Aziz, 3-nil, in the round of 32.

In men’s handball Champions League, Group B, Dinamo
Bucharest was defeated on Thursday at home by the German side Flensburg-Handewitt,
28-20. This is the second consecutive match the Romanian champions lost to
Flensburg, with the latter also winning last week in Germany, 37-30. In the
group standings after 8 rounds, Dinamo are ranking 8th, with only 4
points. Interestingly enough, the only 2 matches won by the Bucharest side were
those against the current group leaders, Kielce (Poland) and Veszprem (Hungary).

We move on to football, in the European Conference
League, CFR Cluj missed their last chance at moving past the group stage. On Thursday
coach Dan Petrescu’s team were defeated away from home by the Danish side Randers,
2-1. CFR will finish last in its group regardless of the results in the last
match, against the Czech side Jablonec, due in Cluj on 9th December.

This weekend sees games counting towards the 17th
round of the Romanian League One. The only match scheduled on Friday, Dinamo
Bucharest vs FC U Craiova, will be followed on Saturday by games pitting Sepsi
Sfântu Gheorghe on home turf against Chindia Târgoviște, UTA against FC Argeș, and
Rapid Bucharest against CS Mioveni, in Giurgiu. On Sunday, FC Botoșani take on FC
Voluntari, on home turf, and Universitatea Craiova on FCSB. The last 2 matches
of the round, Gaz Metan Mediaș vs. Farul Constanța and CFR Cluj vs. Academica, are
to be played on Monday. In the current standings, CFR Cluj are in the lead with
42 points, followed by FCSB, with 34, and by Universitatea Craiova and FC
Voluntari, 28 points each.

Also this weekend, the city of Cluj-Napoca is
hosting the tennis competition between Romania and Peru. The winner
gets into the Davis Cup playoffs for a place in the final tournament, which
brings together the world’s best 16 national teams. (tr. A.M. Popescu)