Belu’s at the end of his rope

It’s been a while since Octavian Belu has been trying to draw the attention of The Romanian Sports Ministry towards gymnastics, whose future -in his opinion- is looking more and more bleak. He said that unless coaches start getting paid well, and by this he does not mean just the National team coaches, the few coaches who are left will leave slowly but surely. “And if we don’t have good coaches, we’ll only get mediocre gymnasts for the National team, and the only selection criteria will be age. I don’t know if I want to keep coaching for little money and not even get [good] results,” said Belu.

The National team head coach said he will leave the country more than once. “I didn’t do it to go some other place, where I’d be at the mercy of who knows what boss. I did because we, gymnastics coaches, are always under appreciated. This is a very demanding job, both physically and emotionally, especially lately when we’ve had to work twice as hard because the new gymnasts joining the team are not as well prepared as they should be. It’s unacceptable that the Sports Law (giving bonus pay to Olympic medallists and coaches) should be applied only for athletes. I don’t want to say that for every success, the coach deserves n percent recognition and the rest should go to the athlete. But I’ve been having this conversation with the people from the Romanian Sports Ministry for a few years now, and it’s not possible to never reach any conclusion. They al tell me I’m right, but there is no legal basis to solve this problem.” For now the ROC is trying to pay its scholarships for excellence, which will give Belu $1,200/month. Up until now, Belu has always stayed on as head coach until things were under control. “I’m no longer flexible,” warned the coach. “I gave them a deadline, which ends after the Romanian International (Apr 27-29). If nothing gets done, I don’t think I’ll stay. Because whenever you repeatedly get treated like an idiot, you start getting fed up.”

The National team has been without a doctor for the past month. Camelia Rădulescu arrived at the beginning of the year, and she only stayed at Deva for the duration of her try-out. No reasons were given for her decision to leave, but the next team doctor will be someone young, from the National Sports Medicine Center, and willing to do the job. “After the Romanian International, we’ll settle this as well,” said Belu.

The Romanian International is set to be held next week-end. 40 countries have been invited, but a few of them are yet to confirm their participation. The two Romanian gymnasts who will take part in the event will be chosen from Senior team members Andreea Răducan, Loredana Boboc, Andreea Isărescu, Silvia Stroescu, Andreea Ulmeanu, Sabina Cojocar and Carmen Ionescu.

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