Athlete of the Week
Wrestler Andreea Ana has obtained the best performance this week
Florin Orban, 20.02.2024, 14:02
Romania’s capital city, Bucharest, last week became the European capital of Wrestling. Europe’s best wrestlers came together for the European Championships, which is also a qualification criterion for the Olympic Games. 30 athletes have represented Romania in the aforementioned competition, ten in the Greek-Roman contest, ten in the freestyle event and another ten in the women’s competition.
The first Romanian medals came from the Greek-Roman event. Denis Florin Mihai, in the 55 kilogram category and Răzvan Arnăut in the 60, stepped onto the podium’s third step whereas no Romanian wrestler was among the medalists of the free-style contest. The best results were obtained by our women athletes, where the Romanian wrestler of Ukrainian descent, Kateryna Zelenyk, and Alexandra Anghel have won silver. However, the number one result was obtained by Andreea Ana, who became gold medalist in the 55 kilogram category and also got the Radio Romania International’s Athlete of the Week title for the best Romanian performance this week.
Andreea Beatrice Ana was born in Mangalia, southern Romania on November 14th 2000. In 2018 she got her first bronze medal in the Under-23 European Championships hosted by Bucharest, Romania, a performance which she reiterated three years later in Warsaw, Poland. She represented Romania at the Olympics in Tokyo where she came 16th. Then she obtained a series of performances in major competitions, such as the World Youth Championship in Belgrade, then the European Championship in Plovdiv, Bulgaria and the European Championships in Budapest in 2022, where she obtained the first gold medal for Romania in the women’s contest of a European Championships. She kept the title of European champion in Zagreb, in 2023, where thanks to the performances she and Alexandra Anghel obtained in the 72 kilogram category, the Romanian athletes managed to win two gold medals in the same edition of the aforementioned competition after 43 years.
(bill)
