| ATHLETE OF THE WEEK – HANDBALLER VALENTINA ARDEAN - ELISEI 03/03/2009 |
| (2009-03-03) |
| Last updated: 2009-03-03 14:09 EET |
The women's handball team Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea are one step away from the knockout rounds of the Champions League. Sadly however, Radu Voinea's girls aren't sitting too comfortably in the group table, on account of having lost last week's match against Krim Mercator of Ljubliana, 35-34.
At the moment, Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea are second in their group, one point behind the Hungarian side Audi ETO Gyor. With two more rounds to go in the group leg, ETO Gyor and Oltchim are considered the most likely to proceed to the next round.
In the match played last weekend between Oltchim and Krim, the Slovene side were ahead in the game throughout most of the first half, which ended 17-15 in their favor. After the break, Oltchim found their way back into the match, and even went two goals ahead. At one point in the match, the scoreboard wrote 20-18 to Oltchim. Overall, the match was pretty much balanced. However, the girls from Krim made an extra effort and won by a single goal. The final scoreline – 35-34.
Although most of Oltchim's players had a pretty good run in the match, the only one who truly rose up to the level of performance required by such a prestigious competition was Valentina Ardean-Elisei. She scored nine goals, enough to convince Radio Romania International to designate her Athlete of the Week.
Valentina Ardean-Elisei was born in Focsani, on June 5th 1982. When she was ten, a few coaches from the local children's sports club came to Valentina's school scouting for young girls to have on their handball team. Valentina's sister, Mihaela, was chosen. Valentina tagged along to see what this sport was all about, and once she played it for the first time, she fell in love with the game.
After playing for the youth team CS Pandora Focsani, Valentina Elisei later married Constantin Ardean and moved to the town of Deva where she played for the local Remin University team. In 2002, with Valentina on their side, the team won the Challenge Cup. She later tranfered to the Serbian side Knaz Milos, and eventually to Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea. In 2007, with Valentina as a member of the squad, Oltchim won the Cup Winners' Cup.
In 2005, Romania came in 2nd at the World Championships held in Russia, and Valentina Ardean-Elisei was designated the world's best left winger. She also obtained notable performances at last year's World Cup in Macedonia, where our national side came in 5th, and Valentina was chosen Best Romanian Player several times.
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2026-06-10
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