Grecu’s Dilemma

Dan Grecu, head coach of the men’s team will decide whether to send Marius Urzică or Răzvan Selariu to Europeans after the Romanian International, which will be hosted by Ploiesti.

The men’s national team is leaving for Ploiesti today. The Romanian gymnasts will compete in the Romanian International over the week-end, along with over 20 other teams that already confirmed their entries.
"We’ll move our ‘headquarters’ to the Central Hotel in Ploiesti. After the Romanian International, we’ll hold a joint training camp with the Swiss team in Ploiesti. This training camp will be capped off by a quad-meet, when the French and German teams will join us,” said Dan Grecu.

Gradual comeback

Marius Urzică says he feels great and would love to compete at Europeans. “I haven’t talked to Mr. Grecu about whether or not I’ll go to Patras. But I think I will go and I hope we’ll do well. I feel great again and it would be a shame not to go and try my best to win [pommel horse]," said Urzică. Dan Grecu is pleased that Marius managed to come back after his injury and he is now in approaching his best form on his other events - parallel bars and high bar. The men’s team will leave for Patras on April 22nd.

Website and Foundation

Dan Grecu has his own website now, at www.dangrecu.ro. The site is full of interesting information, including a biography of Dan Grecu, a brief summary of Romanian men’s gymnastics, and several facts about current national team members. “My daughter, Simona, and her boyfriend worked on the site. It took both of them about 4 months to get the site up-and-running,” said Dan Grecu. The well-known coach also started the Dan Grecu Romanian Men’s Gymnastics Foundation. Other founding members of the organization include Marius Urzică, Rares Orzată, and Ionut Suciu. Dan Grecu hopes his foundation will help promote the sport in Romania and bring in sponsorship money. “The subsidiary of a bank from Resita also promised to help, and we hope we can sign a contract, he said. Every founding member contributed 20 million lei ($70).

Contract Talks Postponed

After the women’s team coaches asked to sign new contracts with the RGF, it would only be logical for the men’s coaches to follow suit and think about new contracts. “Competing at the European Championships is our main goal for now. We’ll talk to RGF officials about this issue after the event,” said Grecu.

Urzică to Skip Romanian International

Despite making a full recovery, Marius Urzică will not compete at the upcoming Romanian International. Coach Dan Grecu decided to give him a rest. After competing at the Cottbus GP last week, Marius saw a specialist, who recommended he should take it easy on P-bars and HB, in order not to risk a new injury.
As far as the team for Europeans is concerned, Dan Grecu is counting on Ioan Suciu, Dan Potra, Marian Drăgulescu, and Constantin Covaci. The only decision to be made is whether to send Marius Urzică or Răzvan Selariu. "Marius could definitely compete on pommel horse, where we would be assured of winning a medal. But I am thinking about the team event first and foremost. He’s not fully back on the other events. If Drăgulescu could do his full routine on rings, then we’ll send Marius Urzică to Patras, because we’ll be sure we have enough gymnasts who can score well on that event [rings],” added Grecu. The head coach will make his final decision after the Romanian International.

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