The 2022 Sports year, in retrospect (II)

A lookback at the main sporting events in 2022

Florin Orban, 28.12.2022, 13:45

In July 2022, the headline-hitting event of
the month was the Wimbledon tennis tournament, the year’s third Grand Slam
competition, which confirmed that Simona Halep still is Romania’s top-flight
tennis player of all time, Halep was the only Romanian to have reached as far
as the semifinals, given that Romania had seven tennis players on the main
draw. However, Halep conceded defeat to Kazakhstan’s Yelena Rybakina.

Concurrently, the Romanian delegation
walked away with no les than nine medals in the European Juniors’ Swimming Championships
held in Otopnei, nearby Bucharest, of which five were gold. The medals went to
the men’s 4 by 100m relay team, to David
Popovici in the 50, 100, 200m freestyle events and to Vlad Ștefan Stancu, who
came in first in the 1.500m freestyle event.

Also in July at the
World Fencing Championship in Cairo, Iulian Teodosiu a won bronze in the
individual sabre event.

Late in July, tennis
player Ana Bogdan played her first WTA tournament final in Warsaw, sustaining a
defeat by Caroline Garcia.

August 2022 was also eventful in terms of
top-flight performances, At the World Kayak-canoe Championships in Canada, in
the 1000m men’s singles Olympic race Cătălin Chirilă won the world title and
walked home with the solver medal in the 500m race.

At the European Swimming Championships in Rome,
in the 100m event David Popovici clocked 46 seconds and 86 hundredths. Popovici
broke the world record held by the Brazilian Cesar Cielo Filho, who also in
Rome, this time at the World Championships in 2009, clocked 46 seconds and 91
hundredths. We recall that back then the special speed-enhancing swimsuits were
still officially allowed. Popovici was a whisker away from repeating his performance
in the 200m European final. The 200m race defending champion David Popovici claimed
the title in style, clocking one minute, 47 seconds and 97 hundredths, the new Juniors’
European and world record, as well as the record of the competition.

Also in August, the European multi-discipline
sports championships were held in Munich. In athletics, Bianca Ghelber won gold in the hammer-throw
event, with a throw of 72 de meters and 72 de centimetres. Also in Munich, rower
Cătălin Chirilă won gold in the 1,000m men’s singles race and silver in the
500m race.

In table tennis, Bernadette
Szőcs won gold in the women’s doubles, jointly with Austria’s Sofia Polkonova,
din Austria, and silver, in the mixed doubles event, jointly with Ovidiu
Ionescu.

At the World Juniors’ Swimming
Championships held in Lima, in September, Romanbia came in 4th in
the nations’ competition. The Romanian delegation won two gold and two silver medals. Three times did David
Popovici climb onto the first step of the podium, in the 100m freestyle in the
200m race and in the 4 by 100 freestyle relay event.

In tennis, in a Davis Cupo
confrontation, Romania sustained a 1-3 defeat by Slovakia in the World group’s
first round.

Rowing again provided the best results for Romania. At the World Rowing
Championships in Racice, the Czech Republic. Romania came in 3rd in
the nations’ competitions, while Great Britain and Italy were top of the table
and the runner-up team, respectively. Stepping onto the highest step of the
podium was Ionela Cozmiuc in the women’s lightweight event. Also 1st
placed was the men’s double scull crew made of Marius
Cozmiuc and Sergiu Bejan. The gold medal also went to the women’s lightweight pair
crew made of Ancuța Bodnar and Simona Radiș and the women’s coxed eight crew.

A notable WTA 250 tennis tournament was held in Cluj Napoca. It was
the year’s leading professional competition hosted by Romania. Russia’ s Ana
Blinkova emerged as winner, having outclassed Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in the
final, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

At the European Under-23 and Juniors’ Weightlifting Championships in
Albania, Romania won 30 de medals, of which 7 were gold, 13 silver and 10 bronze.
In the Under-23 category, gold went to 55-kilogram category competitor Valentin
Iancu, in the snatch and clean-and-jerk styles and in the combined total. In
the juniors’ event, 49-kilogram category competitor Mihaela Cambei also won
gold, in the snatch and clean-and-jerk styles and in the combined total. In
Also in the Juniors’ competition, 45-kilogram competitor Cosmin Isofache won
gold, in the combined total.

At the European Women’s Handball Championships, jointly hosted by Slovenia,
Montenegro and North Macedonia, Romania came in 12th, the same as in
the championship’s previous edition, hosted by Denmark in 2020. Inside-left Romanian
handballer Cristina Neagu was included in the tournament All-Stars team. Ahead
of the 2023 edition of the World Cup Romania’s national rugby team played three
test-matches in Bucharest, defeating Chile, 30-23, then losing to Uruguay, 16 – 21, and Samoa, nil-22.

At the World Weightlifting championship held in
Bogota, Colombia, in December, 71-kilogram-category competitor Loredana Toma won
gold in the snatch style and in the combined total. Toma performed a deadlift
of 119 kilograms in the snatch style, which is the category’s new world record. Also
in December, as part of the World Short-course Swimming Championships in Melbourne,
David Popovici won silver in the 200m freestyle event,
In the 10m freestyle even, Popovici came in 4th and set a new World Juniors’
record. (EN)