Athlete of the Week: Alin Firfirică
Alin Firfirică fared well at the European Throwing Cup.
Florin Orban, 17.03.2026, 13:45
The European Throwing Cup, the first major outdoor athletic competition of 2026, took place in Nicosia, Cyprus. With the onset of spring, outdoor athletic competitions have resumed across Europe. During the recently concluded weekend in Nicosia, the European Throwing Cup saw Romanian athletes among the main protagonists, with one of them even reaching the podium. In the discus throw, Alin Firfirică earned the silver medal, achieving the best Romanian performance of the competition, leading Radio Romania International to designate him Athlete of the Week.
In Cyprus, the Romanian athlete threw the discus 65.95 meters, marking his best result of the current season. The gold medal was claimed by Germany’s Steven Richter with a throw of 67.29 meters, while the bronze went to Ruben Rolvink from the Netherlands, who recorded a distance of 65.47 meters.
Alin Alexandru Firfirică was born in Timișoara on November 3, 1995. He first gained international recognition at the 2014 World Junior Championships held in Eugene, Oregon, where he placed 13th. In 2015, he became the European U23 champion in Tallinn with a throw of 60.64 meters. His first notable result as a senior was a 7th-place finish at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin, after which he was named the best Romanian athlete of the year by the Romanian Athletics Federation.
On September 14, 2019, in Chorzów, Poland, he met the qualification standard for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with a throw of 67.32 meters, a result that remains his personal best. Also in 2019, he won the gold medal at the Military World Games in Wuhan and was once again designated the best Romanian athlete of the year by the national federation. Although he missed qualifying for the final at the Tokyo Olympics, he secured another 7th-place finish at the 2022 European Championships in Munich, earning yet another Athlete of the Year title from the governing body in Bucharest. He subsequently qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where he reached the final and finished in 11th place. (VP)
