Sports Roundup

The Romanian athlete Laura Ilie won the bronze in the 10m air rifle women event of the ISSF World Championship on Saturday in Jakarta, Indonesia. The former European champion got a very good score in the qualifiers, ranking 2nd with 631.4 points, but in the final she came out 3rd, with 260. The gold went to Eszter Meszaros (Hungary), and the silver to Poland's Aneta Stankiewicz.

The Australian Open came to a close on Sunday. The winner of the men's competition was Novak Djokovic, and Arina Sabalenka won the women's competition. Of the Romanian participants, the best performance was Elena-Gabriela Ruse's. She reached the semi-finals of the women's doubles, together with Marta Kostiuk of Ukraine. They were defeated in the semis by Barbora Krejcikova / Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic) seed no 1 and winners of this year's final as well. But for Ruse and Kostiuk, this was the best performance in a Grand Slam. 

In the Erste Liga, a local ice hockey competition, Sport Club Miercurea Ciuc Sunday defeated the Hungarian side Fehérvár Hockey Académia, 7-3. The Hungarian side also played on Friday, against Corona Braşov, and lost 3-5. Top of the ranking are ACSH Gheorgheni, with 75 points out of 34 matches, followed by Budapest Hockey Académia, with 73 points in 33 matches.

This weekend also saw football games counting towards the 23rd leg of the Romanian Super League. On Friday, Universitatea Cluj drew at home, 0 - 0, against Rapid Bucharest. On Saturday, CS Mioveni defeated UTA Arad, 2-1, while Chindia Târgovişte managed the same score away from home against Petrolul Ploieşti, and Universitatea Craiova beat FC Hermannstadt, 2-0.

On Sunday, FC Botoşani outplayed FC Argeş 2-0 and Farul Constanţa won against FCSB, 3-2 after overtime. The game pitting Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe against FC U Craiova was suspended on 26 minutes by the referee Andrei Chivulete, because of anti-Hungarian slogans chanted by the Craiova fans. It was for the first time that a national football championship match was suspended over extremist slogans. Farul Constanta are top of the tables with 48 points, followed by CFR, with 47. (AMP)