Men’s Team Preview

“We will not allow Marius Urzica to compete at his own risk”

A team of German doctors advised Marius Urzica to compete only one event, the pommel horse, at the Romanian International. This will likely play a big part in deciding the Romanian men’s team for the European Championships. Unlike Octavian Belu, who won’t send a [senior] team to the event, Dan Grecu is yet to decide who will go to Patras, postponing his final decision until after an upcoming quad meet, where Romania will go up against France, Switzerland and Germany.

CN: Mr. Grecu, care to comment on your gymnasts’ performance at the Romanian International?
DG: The competition had a good level of technical difficulty. I’m happy Dragulescu has recovered and after his latest floor routine, I don’t see how he could miss the European title (on floor). He was awarded the highest score of the meet and the routine itself was better than it was at Worlds.
CN: He still missed the vault final. Isn’t he full recovered?
DG: We didn’t want to push him. He is fully recovered, and he will perform at his normal level at Europeans. We already have problems putting together a team since all the gymnasts are equally good. Potra, who won the all-around event, competed well, and so did Suciu.
CN: What is Marius Urzica’s status?
DG: Marius is a very special case. The doctors in Germany told him not to push himself and compete only one event –pommel horse. He wants to compete on all the events [he usually does] in the team event, though.
CN: Why didn’t he compete at the Romanian International?
DG: He had a cold and, in any case, we wanted him to take it easy. Even if he wants to compete at his own risk, and sign a release form assuming responsibility, we would not agree. If he wants to compete in the 2004 Olympics, then he needs to follow the doctors’ advice, even if he tells us he’s feeling fine and has no problems whatsoever.
CN: What are your team’s goals for Europeans?
DG: We’re counting on 2-3 medals, maybe a few of them gold, and qualifying for the team finals, maybe even a podium finish. We hope to at least equal our results from last year’s Worlds.
CN: Is Ioan Suciu a challenger to Urzica’s domination on pommel horse?
DG: Suciu’s had a couple of good results on this event. He won the PH final at Ploiesti, too. It is possible he could challenge Marius for the gold medal at Europeans.
CN: When will you name the team for Patras?
DG: We have a quad meet with the French, Swiss and German teams coming up at the end of the week. We will make our final decision after this meet. The competition is fierce. The guys are showing an unexpected level of maturity, they’re all very serious and want to achieve great things. This situation can only make me happy.
CN: Best of luck to you!
DG: Thank you.

Quad Meet Results

Romania's team -Marian Dragulescu, Ion Suciu, Dan Potra, Razvan Selariu, Constantin Covaci and Bogdan Orzata finished second with a total of 219.139, behind France. Germany was third with 215.490 points, narrowly edging out Switzerland for the last podium place by 193 hundreds of a point.

AA Results
1. Yann Cucherat (FRA) 54.538 p
2. Thomas Andergassen (GER) 54.369 p
3. Marian Dragulescu 54.368 p

Dragulescu performed well on vault and floor, but struggled on bars. Dan Potra, the recent AA gold medallist from the Romanian International, did not compete all 6 events after complaining of leg/foot pain. He skipped vault and floor. The team struggled on HB and PBs, taking too many falls on both events. The technical director of the men's team Mircea Apolzan, talked about selecting the team for Europeans. "90% of the team has been determined. Marius Urzica, Marian Dragulescu, Ion Suciu and Dan Potra will go to Patras. Head coach Dan Grecu will name the last gymnast based on the gymnasts' performance at the last training sessions."

Women’s Team Preview

Octavian Belu will be going to Patras as head of Romania’s delegation for the European Gymnastics Championships. While waiting in line at the Otopeni international airport, Belu panicked once he realized his passport was missing. The visibly tense Belu checked his coat pockets, ending up being forced to ask the other officials if they didn’t have his passport. It turned out one of the other officials, who already went through customs had his passport, and Belu was finally able to calm down, following the big scare.

As far as he is concerned, Belu believes Oana Petrovschi’s chances to win a medal in the senior event are fairly small. Oana will be then lone entrant in the senior competition, as better-known gymnasts like Andreea Rãducan, Silvia Stroescu and Loredana Boboc will all miss the event. The reason for Belu’s prediction? The gymnast won’t have the [moral[ support of a team, and it will be hard for her to handle the pressure of an event of this magnitude. As far as the juniors are concerned, Belu thinks they are capable of medalling, but he will not venture any comments as to what color the medals will be. “It will be a good experience for them, because next year we will put together the team for Worlds, the qualifying event for the 2004 Athens Olympics", concluded Belu. Junior team members are Florea Leonida, Alexandra Eremia, Iuliana Chindea, Elena Velicu and Monica Rosu.

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