News & Updates

Maria Neculită
Copyrighted photo by Robert Kensit

Andreea Răducan plans to transfer from her home club of CSS Barlad to Farul Constanta. The Olympic champion had already said she would like to move to Constanta with her family, a decision most likely prompted by her brother being accepted to the local Sports High School. Problems surfaced because CSS Barlad is asking for 1 billion lei ($35,000) in order to give their permission for Răducan to hold dual club membership. The RGF said they will mediate the conflict between the two clubs.

Sabina Cojocar and Marian Drăgulescu turned in steady performances at the GWG all-around competition. Both of them were able to take advantage of mistakes made by pre-competition favorites and came out as gold medallists. Dragulescu scored a 9.75 on vault on his way to the all-around crown, while Cojocar's highest score -a 9.462- came on beam.

Maria Olaru has agreed to a three-month coaching contract with the Klagenfurt gymnastics club in Austria. Best known for hosting the Alpen Adria Cup for junior gymnasts, the Austrian club has a long-standing coaching and student exchange program with CSS Deva.

Vasilica Alexandra Huci (turns out she was yet another gymnast going by her middle name) was burried over the week-end. Maria Olaru and Claudia Presacan were at the funeral, and several Romanian personalities sent funeral wreaths, including president Ion Iliescu and ROC president Ion Tiriac. Lucia Mustată, Alexandra's first coach, was in charge of the funeral that showcased 86 children from gym clubs in Onesti, Deva, Bacău, and Roman carrying flower crowns, along with typical orthodox funeral rites, such crossing the 13 gates before entering Heaven [meaning the priest stops 13 times on the way to the final resting place and holds a brief mass each time].

The Romanian men's team turned in another great performance, this time at the World University Games. Ioan Suciu, Dan Potra, Constantin Covaci, Rares Orzata, and his younger brother, Bogdan Orzata placed 5th in the team event with 165.275 pts. Ioan Suciu also won a gold medal in the pommel horse final, with a score of 9.8. Potra and also qualified for the all around finals, where they placed 6th, 8th and respectively.

Several Romanian personalities have already donated money to the Huci family, including ROC president Ion Tiriac who gave them 21 million lei ($725) and Hunedoara County Council director Constantin Grigore who donated 10 million lei ($350). Simona Amanar did not donate any money directly, buts he bought the Huci family clothes for the funeral and offered to pay for Ana Maria Huci's tuition at Deva, so she can attend high school there. "It would be a shame to tear her away from the environment she's gotten used to and I wanted to help her." CSS Deva said it would pay for all funeral costs.
If any of you would like to donate more money to the family, Nicole Citroen has set up a wire transfer address for any possible donations.

Alexandra Huci's mother told ProSport she feels "guilty about sending my girls off to Deva. 14 girls left Roman to go to Deva and Alexandra was the only one selected for the team, but look where she ended up. This year she only came home once. It would have been better if I kept her home then, and maybe nothing would have happened then.""

Romanian Minister of the Industries Dan Ioan Popescu said all debts for the CSS Deva club will be cancelled. "It seems fair that all centers within the Minister of the Industries should support this national sport -gymnastics- since its costs are not all that great, compared to soccer or other sports. I will make sure the national team no longer has problems paying their electrical bills, or their salaries," said Popescu. CSS Deva had debts of 2.5 billion lei (little less than $100,000) from unpaid gas, heat and electricity bills.

The long-awaited autopsy results for Alexandra Huci concluded the gymnast died due to a brain hemorrhage. Milan Dressler, director of the Timisoara Legal Medicine Institute was the doctor who performed the autopsy. He said there were no traces of any hit (impact) on her brain. "The autopsy confirms the clinical diagnosis. Death was caused by a brain hemorrhage, which occurred due to a congenital malformation. No lesions of the head and neck were discovered during the autopsy," concluded Dr. Dressler. Several other tests were sent to the Mina Minovici Institute in Bucharest. Their results will be known in 2-3 weeks.

Romania won the dual meet against Great Britain held in Deva this week-end. Romania scored 148.252 pts to Great Britain's 138.035. Sabina Cojocar was the top all-arounder with a total of 37.584, followed by teammates Silvia Stroescu, Ulmeanu and Boboc. Raducan only competed three events, vault, bars and beam. She got the highest score of the meet on bars, with a 9.8 and tied Cojocar for the top score on beam with a 9.6. Full results are available at the BAGA site.

Cluj's Oana Ban is the only gymnast from Romania invited to compete at this year's Chunichi Cup. The letter from the organizers mentioned her performanced at the EYOD and her appearance at Japan's 1999 Junior International as reasons for extending the invitation.

The Romanian Government passed a new law, effective August 3rd, cancelling the "tax free" provision that applied to prize money coaches will receive. The provision still applies to athletes, but coaches will give up 40% of their prize money. This means Octavian Belu would only receive 60% of any prize he could be awarded after Ghent.

Tems for the tri-meet Rom-Fra-Bul at Deva have been announced. Romania: Loredana Boboc, Sabina Cojocar, Alexandra Barac, Andreea Ulmeanu, Carmen Ionescu & Silvia Stroescu. France: Yves Kieffer, Veronique Legras (coaches), Veronique Regease, Nelly Soupe, Aurelie Hedouin, Betty Dupin, Marion Mourier, Melodie Vaudable. Bulgaria: Georgi Videnov, Antonina Uzunova (coaches), Ralitsa Rangelova, Antonina Ivanova, Radostina Tudorova, Irina Karcheva, Galabina Kamenova, Nikolina Tankoucheva & Evgenia Kuznetsova. Both delegations will bring two judges from their respective country.

Andreea Raducan received a two-room apartment in Barlad from the local mayor's office. After consulting with local officials, the mayor put forth 100 million lei (about $3400) for the apartment. Andreea has already moved out into her new apartment.

ProSport published a few tidbits about EYOD team members as they returned home.
Andreea Petrovschi, who no longer goes by her first name of Oana, started painting small plates last year. She only has 3 colors and so far, she’s painted 4 plates. Judging by how well her gymnastics career is going, she could add an Olympic medal to her collection. Much like Andreeea, Oana Ban is a big fan of movie stars Van Damme and Jim Carrey. Oana kept busy during her stay in Spain, drawing the EYOD mascot. She said she loved all the palm trees in Spain and the friendly people in Murcia.Larisa Apostol, the youngest team member, is also the most quiet. She likes music.
After winning the team gold medal and handing out tens of autographs, the girls went back to the dining hall. The Dutch team who won bronze in the team event organized a ceremony, somewhat in bad taste, where every gymnast got up on a chair and received a standing ovation from the other team members. [again, the comment was made by the original author, not me]. Meanwhile, the winners sat down at the next table and quietly munched on some pears.

The recently concluded European Youth Olympic days brought a 6-medal haul for the gymnastics team. Oana Ban led the team to a gold medal, won vault and took second on floor and beam, and third in the all around. Oana Petrovschi added a bronze on beam. Complete results are available at the Official EYOD site.

The Romanian men's team won a trimeet in Spain against two host teams, Spain A and Spain B. Romania's team total was 216.5 pts, placing them ahead of Spain A's 214.3 pts. Dan Nicolae Potra was a surprise winniner in the all-around with a score of 55.05, almost one point ahead of second place finisher, Jesus Martinez of Spain. Marian Dragulescu, one of the favorites to win the AA finished only 17th because he couldn't perform on rings due to an injury. The other Romanian team members were Constantin Covaci (6th place AA, 51.95), Rares Orzata (11th AA, 51.5), Ioan Suciu (12th AA, 50.2), Dorin Selariu (14th AA, 49.35).

Tuesday night, members of the National senior team that trains at Deva made a very unpleasant discovery. As a result of the unpaid debts accumulated by CSS Deva, there was no running hot water available. Head coach Octavian Belu was in Bucharest when this happened. He told Evenimentul Zilei he immediately tried to contact the mayor of Deva, but he could not find him. "We noticed there was no running hot water right after practice. The girls who came in from the massage room had to go to bed with creams still on them. Often times, a warm bath was a way for them to relax," added the head coach.
Things have not gotten any better since Tuesday for the National team, as electricity was cut off later in the week.

Teodora Ungureanu, multiple medallist at the 176 Olympics, will be inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame this week-end. The former gymnast now works as a coach in New York, where she lives with her husband and daughter.

According to ProSport, the junior national team is now training at Onesti. More importantly, the newspaper just found out none of the junior gymnasts have medical insurance, meaning any injuries they could suffer during training would not be covered. Several parents are considering bringing legal action against the RGF.

In one of the more humorous blunders from this year's Romanian International, one of the judges misplaced up the marks for American gymnast Clay Strother, thus giving Swiss gymnast Dominic Dappen the bronze medal in the AA. After the medal ceremony, when they realized they made a mistake, the organizers decided to make up for it. One of them literally chased Dappen around, to recover the bronze medal and the vacuum cleaner awarded as a prize for the bronze medallist, and award them to Strother.

This year's Romanian International will include a retirement ceremony for 4 former gymnasts: Simona Amanar, Claudia Presăcan, Maria Olaru and Corina Ungureanu. Even though she stopped competing 3 years ago, Corina wanted to make her retirement official at the same time her friends and teammates stopped competing. Nadia Comăneci and ROC President Ion Tiriac are among the guests who will take part in the ceremony.

Andreea Isărescu had surgery on her right knee in Bucharest. The 17-year old injured herself while practicing on vault, and she could miss the 2001 Worlds.

The Romanian senior team left for Ploiesti on Monday, where they will compete in the Romanian International. Andreea Isărescu will miss the competition due to a sprained knee she suffered during Friday night's training session. For now, she is wearing a restrictive knee brace and she will undergo further tests at the Sports Medicine Center in Bucharest.

According to ProSport, this will be the first time in 5 years that Simona Amanar celebrates Easter with the rest of her family. "I always celebrated Easter while training at Deva. This is the first time I won't be with to the other girls and I think I'll miss them. I don't even know what it's like to celebrate Easter with your family. Everything seems new to me and that's exactly why I like it," said Simona. Her brother came to pick her up from Timisoara, where she goes to college. Once home, the family will head over to Brăila. "We're going to my aunt's. I'll meet my cousins and I think we're going to have a great time."
Olympic champ Marius Urzică came back home from Germany, where he competes in their club championships. He wanted to spend his Easter holiday with his wife and 5 month-old son, Andrei

Evenimentul Zilei reports Gina Gogean decided to follow doctors' advice and have back surgery to repair deviated vertebrae and the beginning of a herniated disc, both of them caused by her numerous gymnastics injuries. "I fell on my head a lot of times during practice, and this put a lot of strain on my back. Every sport has its risk. I talked to the doctor and he told me I have to have surgery on my back, otherwise I could develop serious problems later on", explained Gina who also said she is scared of the upcoming procedure. Gina somehow found the time to take her judging test, and pass. She is now an international brevet judge, as well as a recent member of the COR.

Nadia Comăneci said she plans to celebrate her 5th wedding anniversary in Romania, during the Romanian International. She will spend a few days in Oklahoma doing commentary with husband Bart Conner for the French International. Nadia was in Romania visiting her ailing father, who is apparently too sick to even attempt treating him in another country.

Even though the women's team was pulled out of the French International, the Romanian delegation still managed to have a great showing. Marius Urzica dominated the pommel horse final scoring a 9,75 for a slightly modified version of his Sydney routine. Marian Dragulescu showed off his hs double front 1/2 on vault, winning the event with an average of 9.562 pts. Marian also took second place in the floor final for another 10SV routine that included an innovative pass of double layout punch pike.
Complete results and pictures are available on the French Federation web site

The recently concluded Aerobic Nationals marked the first edition of the Open International, meaning foreign competitors can take part in the event. Madalina Ciovee (CSS Deva) won the junior event with 16.9 pts, followed by Raluca Babaligea (Triumf Bucuresti) 16.75 pts and Yanina Oltean (CSS Deva). Raluca Babaligea is a former senior national team member.

Monitorul de Cluj published an article about the national team, including some interesting tid-bits about National team members
Andreea Raducan loves the Spice Girls and Bryan Adams
Maria Olaru didn't have the happiest childhood. Her father died when she was 3 and she's been living with her mother and two sisters ever since. Described herself as a fighter, and said she loves animals. She speaks Italian and likes to listen to the Spice Girls, Bryan Adams & the Backstreet Boys in her free time.
Simona Amanar started gymnastics at the age of six, after she saw a local competition. "It seemed to be a lot of fun, so I signed up for lessons the next day." Her role model was Nadia Comaneci and her favorite gymnasts include Camelia Voinea, Daniela Silivas and Shannon Miller. Vitaly Scherbo is her favorite male gymnast. She loves French fries, and likes to cook soups and omelets. Loves figure skating, action movies (especially the ones starring Jean Claude Van Damme) and science fiction. Her favorite place out of the ones she visited was Disneyland and Italy.
Loredena Boboc's nickname is Lori, while Andreea Isarescu's is Isa.

Olympic champions Simona Amanar, Maria Olaru, Andreea Raducan, Andreea Isarescu, Loredana Boboc, will be joined by junior team members Sabina Cojocar, Silvia Stroescu, Alexandra Barac and Carmen Ionescu, as well as Marius Urzica for the 2001 Stars of Romanian gymnastics tour. Claudia Presacan, now training with the rowing team, will miss the gala. Marius Urzica said he's happy to see men's gymnastics is now promoted in Romania, not just women's. Maria Olaru added Romanian gymnasts are better known abroad, and she is happy to compete one last time in Romania. Maria plans on heading back to the Sports University in Timisoara after the tour, but she said she will consider any offers to coach in another country

Although scheduled to compete for Brescia in the Italian team club championships, Andreea Raducan will have to miss at least the first meet of the competition, scheduled for February 3rd due to her hip injury. She is listed as questionable for the second meet, set to take place on February 17th.

Maria Olaru will retire in April, at this year's Romanian International (no mention of whether she'll actually compete, or if there will just be a ceremony for her). She explained her decision, saying "the skills I performed at last year's Olympics are now worthless under the new code of points." The first year student at the Sports University in Timisoara plans to pursue a career in education or coaching in the future.

Recently hired team doctor Cornelia Ionescu had a full day's work on Monday, taking Andreea Raducan and Sabina Cojocar to the Medical Institute in Bucharest, after both gymnasts complained of hip pains. Andreea's injury was diagnosed as fibril lesions on her right hip and she will miss 7 days of training to recover. This didn't stop her from posting a plaque she made on the door from the drug tests room where athletes have to give blood. It read "The vampires' room." Most of the doctors loved the joke.

Last week-end, the National team got a new team doctor. Cornelia Ionescu, who worked with the soccer and handball teams in the past, accepted the job. "So far she didn't have to deal with any gymnastics injuries, but we hope there won't be any problems," said coach Belu.

Maria Olaru, silver medalist at the Sydney Olympics, was named best athlete in Hunedoara for the third year in a row. The ceremony started a few hours late, causing the rest of the National team to miss the event. Maria, the only National team member from Cetate Deva, confirmed her retirement at the ceremony. She was awarded a diploma, naming her an "Ambassador of Hunedoara sports."

Simona Amanar and coach Octavian Belu will attend the World Sports Awards ceremony Tuesday night in London. She's also invited to Muhammad Ali's birthday party on Monday. Simona will rejoin the national team at Deva on Wednesday to train for the tour organized by Professional Sport Management, which will take place in mid February. Tour stops include Timisoara, Oradea and Cluj. This will be the first time the Romanian team competes after the Olympics, and Simona's last appearance as a competitive gymnast.

News 2000

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