Chunichi Cup & Swiss Cup Previews
Original articles were published on December 3rd in Gazeta Sporturilor and ProSport
Oana Ban and Ioana Petrovschi, the two gymnasts who will represent Romania in the Chunichi Cup in Japan had a brief training session at the national training center Lia Manoliu in Bucharest. National team head coach Octavian Belu supervised training, assisted by former gymnastic great Gina Gogean.
Asked to talk about the World Cup final in Stuttgart, Octavian Belu said he was pleased with his gymnasts’ performance, especially Ioana Petrovschi. "In Stuttgart, Ioana proved her result in Deberecen wasn’t just a lucky break.” He went on to explain that after Raducan’s retirement there is no one left on the national team who could serve as a role model, someone the others could look up to.
"Even though she does her routine on bars very well, Petrovschi still has a lot of work left to do in order to be a complete gymnast." He feels our desire to be the best in the world has gone down significantly the past few years. "Some of the gymnasts are happy with one good result, while gymnasts from Spain and the Netherlands, countries that almost went unnoticed until recently, work a lot harder than they [our gymnasts] do."
He also said he didn’t think 2002 was a year filled with bad luck for Romanian gymnastics. "Every season is based on how you prepare for it. There were a lot of health problems and completely unwarranted retirements."
Another Romanian newspaper, ProSport, reports the men’s team is also training hard. European all-around champion Dan Potra left for Switzerland on Monday, where he will compete in two events. Even though he didn’t go to Worlds in Debercen, nor the World Cup final in Stuttgart, he is scheduled for the individual competition in Chiasso and the Swiss Cup in Zurich on Saturday. There, he will be paired up with Monica Rosu and final results will be determined by adding up both gymnasts’ scores. Then, on December 10th, Dan Potra will continue his globe-trotting heading over to Taiwan for yet another competition. Probably his last in 2002.
It is worth noting that Romania’s 17 wins in World Cup competitions this past year place our men’s team first among the participating countries, with Russia’s 9 victories finishing a distant second. “These results are no fluke. It’s a normal situation, resulting from the guys becoming more mature. Their performances are much more secure now,” said men’s team coach Dan Grecu. Marian Drăgulescu (8 titles) and Marius Urzică (6 titles) also lead the individual rankings in the World Cup. “In Germany, besides Marius and Marian’s victories, I was very happy for Ioan Suciu who grabbed a silver medal on pommel horse. He needed it to boost his confidence.”
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