| ATHLETE OF THE WEEK (26.06.2007) |
| (2007-06-26) |
| Last updated: 2007-06-26 20:28 EET |
Romanian boxers have won three medals at the European Union Championships, hosted last week in Dublin. Ionut Gheorghe won gold in the 64 kilograms category, after beating Polish Marcin Legowski in the final 17-6. Earlier, in the semi-finals, the Romanian boxer had won against Gyula Kate, 21-10. The silver medal went to Romanian Constantin Bejenaru, in the 81 kilograms category, who lost the final against Irish Kenneth Egan 17-23. In the semi-finals, Bejenaru had won against Turk Bahram Muzaffer. In the 91 plus kilograms category, Romanian Cristian Ciocan won bronze, after having lost on points the semi-finals against Irish Cathal McMonagle, 32-25. Romania had 7 boxers in these championships.
Following his performance, Radio Romania International has designated Ionut Gheorghe “athlete of the week”.
The Romanian boxer was born in Constanta, south-eastern Romania, on the Black Sea coast, on February 29th 1984. His first international performance was winning bronze in the 57 kilograms category, in the European Cadet Boxing championship held in Athens in 2000.
In the 2004 Athens Olympics, Ionut Gheorghe won the only medal for the Romanian boxing team, namely bronze in the 64 kilograms category. From then on he has been considered Romania’s most valuable boxer. In 2006 he won the bronze medal in the European championship in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, also in the 64 kg category.
This year his focus is on the world championship in Russia and the world title. Ionut Gheorghe said that after the 2008 Beijing Olympics he will enter professional boxing. He announced to the media that he will sign a contract with the Canadian club Interbox, for which the former world lightweight champion Romanian Leonard Doroftei used to box.
(Florin Orban)
|
2026-06-11
Print
Listen again