Worlds Podium Training

Original article was published on August 14th in Gazeta Sporturilor

As the men’s team had their podium training at the Arrowhead Pond, Romanian officials expressed their dissatisfaction with the 90-minute training time. ”Everyone was unhappy with the schedule. How could you be satisfied with 12 minutes for each event divided between 6 gymnasts? This rush was hard on us on floor and high bar, the latter being a lot more elastic than the ones in the training hall. The guys still didn’t get used to it,” said Mircea Apolzan, RGF’s technical director.

Several athletes stood out in the training frenzy. Among them Marius Urzica and Marian Dragulescu, who had won World titles on pommel horse, vault and floor before. “Yes. I can win. I’m confident.” Those curt statements were made by Marius Urzica, who’s been dominating pommel horse competitions since 1994. Sitting next to him at the post-training press conference, Marian Dragulescu turned out to be more talkative. “I know I must not lose focus. I don’t think about all the competition [days], only about my performance the next day. I’m well prepared for these Worlds.” Dan Grecu, their coach, doesn’t contradict them. “Marius will win on pommel horse. None of the other gymnasts impressed me on this event. As for Marian, he still has a good chance to medal on both floor and vault. This was an important training session because we saw our competition. They’re very talented, especially the US and China, but we also have a good team,” added Grecu.

Romania might not have any gymnasts march in for the opening ceremonies. The men’s team starts their qualifying round in the morning and Dan Grecu wants them well rested, while the women’s training session ends right before the opening ceremonies. “If they don’t change our schedule, we won’t go. We can’t even send our alternate because we didn’t decide who it will be yet. We’ll only name her [the alternate] on Saturday,” said Octavian Belu.

In related news, Corina Ungureanu will start working for Romanian television station B1 TV on Friday. The two-time World team champion will work for their morning show Morning life doing gymnastics commentary. Currently a coach at her home club of CSS Ploiesti, she will be their gymnastics analyst and commentate the Romanian team’s performance at Worlds.

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