Dream duo to coach Romania’s gymnastics team
Mariana Bitang and Octavian Bellu return at the helm of the national gymnastics team.
Mihai Pelin, 09.12.2015, 13:45
After the recent
disappointing results of the Romanian gymnasts, the coaches with the greatest
achievements in the history of Romanian sports, Mariana Bitang and Octavian
Bellu, have agreed to return to the national women’s team. After having
withdrawn several times from the helm of the team and being appointed state
advisers for sports in 2006, they suspended their cooperation with the Romanian
Gymnastics Federation in 2014 for family reasons.
Their recent
return occurred after the head of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee,
Alin Petrache, sent an open letter to the Romanian Gymnastics Federation,
calling for concrete measures to improve Romania’s results in this sport. The
letter also requested clarifications regarding the role of Mariana Bitang and
Octavian Bellu in the 2016 Rio Olympics training and participation programme,
and recommended, as a last resort, that a foreign coach be hired for the team.
After talks with both the Gymnastics Federation and the Youth and Sports
Ministry, Bellu and Bitang have decided to take over themselves. Their
objective is to have the Romanian team qualified for the forthcoming Olympic
Games.
For the first
time in the last 49 years, the Romanian women’s gymnastics team was not a
serious contender for a medal in the latest World Championships, and finished
in a dismal 13th place. Since it failed to secure a place among the
world’s top 8 teams in Glasgow, Romania missed the chance to qualify
automatically for the Olympic Games. The only chance now to secure a place in
Rio is to finish among the top four teams at the Olympic test event due in Rio
in April. While this may not appear to be an easy task, according to the media,
Romania still have a good chance, given the vast experience and expertise of
the team’s new coaches.
Mariana Bitang
and Octavian Bellu steered the Romanian women’s gymnastics team through 6
successive editions of the Olympic Games between 1992 and 2012, winning a total
22 medals, of which 11 gold, 6 silver and 5 bronze.
