Along with 36 other nations, Romania participates in the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships under way in Cluj Napoca until the 23rd of April
The central Romanian city of Cluj Napoca is hosting the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships 60 years since the latest edition to be hosted by Romania, in Bucharest. Attending the opening ceremony, the youth and sports minister Marius Dunca said gymnastics are an iconic sport in Romania, given the large number of medals obtained over the years in European and world competitions and at the Olympic Games.
274 gymnasts are competing this year, 168 male and 106 female, from 37 different countries. Romania is represented by 10 gymnasts, including household names Marian Dragulescu, Larisa Iordache and Catalina Ponor. The Romanian team got off to a good start as many times European and world champion Marian Dragulescu met his fans' expectations and qualified for the floor and vault finals. Dragulescu is Romania's only male gymnast to make it to the apparatus finals. Coach Ioan Suciu says the other members of the male team failed to qualify because nerves got the better of them.
The former great Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, who is in Cluj Napoca herself, says she is sure Romania will win a medal and that Marian Dragulescu will in her opinion win the gold in both finals. Nadia Comaneci is the ambassador of this year's edition of the European Championships. This autumn, she will be the official spokesperson for the World Gymnastics Championships hosted by Montreal, Canada. It was in Montreal in 1976 that she became the first female gymnast to score a 10 in an international competition. The scoreboard was not designed to display such a score, so the judges were forced to show it as 1.0.
Since then, Romanian female gymnasts have won tens of Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals. A force to be reckoned with for dozens of years, the Romanian female gymnastics team saw a gradual demise in recent years and did not even qualify for the Olympic Games held in Rio last year, something that hadn't happened since the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. However, at the European Championships held last year in Bern, Switzerland, Marian Dragulescu won two silver medals for Romania in the floor and vault competitions, while Catalina Ponor won two bronze medals in the floor and beam events.
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