Lowered Expectations

Original article was published on July 31st in Gazeta Sporturilor

“Nothing is set in stone, not even now. The team will be finalized only on August 6th,” confessed Octavian Belu, head coach of the women’s gymnastics team. The preliminary list handed in to the RGF executive committee consists of seven names: Floarea Leonida, Oana Ban, Alexandra Eremia, Alexandra Munteanu, Catalina Ponor, Dana Sofronie and Monica Rosu. The only possible change foreseen by the coaches would be due to Florica’s injury suffered during the dual meet against Italy. "Leonida is recovering slowly, but she’s on the right track. I hope she won’t have any problems, because we need her,” added the coach.

”This isn’t a team whose competitive experience is its main advantage, I’ll admit that. The only gymnast from Deva who’s won a World championship with the team is Silvia Stroescu, but she’s missing. That’s why our goal for Worlds, qualifying for the Olympics and winning one or two medals is more realistic than daring. “ Adrian Stoica’s statement cannot be applied to the men’s team who consists of Ioan Suciu, Marian Dragulescu, Marius Urzica, Dan Potra, Razvan Selariu and Constantin Covaci, who have already won many world medals among themselves. Urzica’s been dominating pommel horse competitions since the 1994 Brisbane Worlds; Dragulescu wants to repeat his performance from the 2001 Worlds, while Potra and Suciu are both experienced gymnasts. “We’ve gotten used to doing well and winning a lot of medals, but we can’t hazard any big-time predictions,” explained Dan Grecu, the men’s team head coach.

The Romanian delegation is leaving for Anaheim on August 8th and they’ll be staying at Coast Hotel. The hotel is located next to the competition venue, which is used as a hockey rink during the hockey season as the home arena of recent Stanley Cup finalists, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Worlds are bound to cause coach Dan Grecu a few headaches, since he’s also a judge for the men’s competition. "They’ll draw the men’s judging panels once we get to Anaheim. There’s a chance I’ll even miss the competition [because I will be judging instead of coaching],” he concluded.

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