Olympic prospects 2020

olympic prospects 2020 Romanian boxing's hopefuls ahead of the Tokyo Olympics


Boxing has been included among Olympic sports disciplines as early as 1904, at the Olympic Games hosted by the city of St Louis, Missouri, in the United States. Romanian boxers first participated in an Olympic competition in Berlin in 1936. The delegation back then was made of Dumitru Panaitescu, Ioan Gaşpar, Nicolae Berechet and Gheorghe David. However, it was not until 1952 that Romanian boxing had a medal-winning record as in Helsinki, Vasile Tita won silver in the 75-kilogram category, while Gheorghe Fiat stepped onto the third step of the podium in the 60-kilogram category. All told, Romanian boxers won 25 Olympic medals, of which one was gold, nine silver and 15 bronze, At the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, Nicolae Linca won the only Olympic medal, in the 69-kilogram category.


For the 2021 edition of the Olympic Games, to be held in Tokyo, only one Romanian boxer managed to qualify. His name is Cosmin Girleanu, and he fights in the 52-kilogram category, In the pre-Olympic tournament held in London in March 2020, Cosmin Girleanu defeated his Azeri contender Rufat Huseinov on points, in the competition's round of 16, while Cosmin's going through to the quarterfinals secured him the place in the upcoming Olympic contest. 

Cosmin Girleanu, after his win in the quarterfinals:


 "I am very, very happy because of what I've achieved and I am very motivated so that I may cut a fine figure at the Olympics. I cannot say I put up a good fight, well, it was not as good as I would have liked it to be, what I wanted was to box finely and implement the tactics I'd planned ahead of the match, but I fought with the heart, I went there and I did what I know best, that is to fight ".


We recall that back then the boxing working group as part of the International Olympic Committee interrupted the European pre-Olympic tournament in London because of the COVID-19 pandemic.


Cosmin Girleanu was born on September 3, 1999, in Hunedoara. He took up boxing at the age of 10. Cosmin first won the national title at the very first cadets' competition he took part in. In Sankt Petersburg in 2015, Cosmin Girleanu won the juniors' world title in the 46-kilogram category. At the European U-21 championships held in Vladikavkaz, Cosmin Girleanu walked away with silver n the 49-kilogram category.

-----



www.rri.ro
Publicat: 2020-07-30 13:45:00
Vizualizari: 1123
TiparesteTipareste