In June, at the European kayak-canoe championships in Zagreb, the Romanian team won five medals, two gold and two silver. Liviu Alexandru Dumitrescu and Victor Mihalachi won in the 1,000 meter double canoe, and came in second in the 500 m event. At single canoe, Florin Comanici won the gold for the 5,000 meter event. The rest of the silver medals were won by the men’s teams for the kayak four and the canoe four, both in the 1,000 meter event.

Romania’s fencing team won four medals in Italy, at the Legnano European championships. In the individual saber event, Simona Gherman won the gold, after defeating another Romanian fencer, Anca Maroiu, granting her the silver in the process. Another silver medal was brought home by the epee team, made up of Ana-Maria Branza, Loredana Dinu, Anca Maroiu and Simona Gherman, after being beaten to the gold by the Russian team. Another silver was won by the men’s epee team, made up of Rares Dumitrescu, Tiberiu Dolniceanu, Alexandru Sireteanu and Florin Zalomir, again losing to the Russians.
Romania also won a European title at the European mixed doubles table tennis championships, held in Buzau, Romania. The pair Andre Filimon and Elizabeta Samara held on to their continental title after defeating in four sets, 4-0, the Turkish pair Bora Vang- Melek Hu. The bronze medals were won by the pair Ovidiu Ionescu- Bernadette Szocs, which was defeated in the semifinals by the same pair, Vang- Hu, and the Belarus pair Pavel Platonov- Alexandra Pirvalova, defeated in the semi-finals by the Romanian team Filimon and Samara.

And now for tennis. The Romanian- Swedish pair Horia Tecau- Robert Linstedt won in the doubles at the competition in the Dutch city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, with prizes totaling 400,000 Euro. Tecau and Lindstedt defeated 6-3 7-6 the Colombian-Russian couple Juan Sebastian Cabal and Dmitri Tursunov.
In July, Tecau reached the finals of the doubles competition in Wimbledon, again with his colleague from Sweden, Robert Linstedt. They lost the finals for the third time in London, to the British- Danish pair Jonathan Marray and Frederik Nielsen, in five sets. However, they won at the competition in Båstad for the third time.

In the London Olympic games, Romania won no less than nine medals, two gold, five silver, and two bronze. We will be having an Olympic retrospective in a separate show, so tune in to our programs for that.

In August, the aforementioned Romanian- Swedish pair scored another success. They won the finals of the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati, with prizes totaling 2,800,000 dollars. They defeated the Indian pair Mahesh Bhupathi- Rohan Bopanna.

In September, Romania won its first medal in the London Paralympics. Carol- Eduard Novak won the 4 km indoors individual pursuit event, with 4 minutes 42 seconds. At the qualifiers he set a new world record, with 4 minutes, 40 seconds, and 315 thousandths. At the previous Parympics in Beijing, the Romanian athlete won the silver. Carol Eduard Novak used to speed skate professionally, but 16 years ago he lost a foot in a car crash.

Also in September, Romanian rowers got excellent results in the European championships in Varese, Italy. They won five medals, two gold, two silver, and two bronze. The gold was won by the women’s eight plus one team and by the pair team. The silver was won by the men’s coxwainless four team. Two women’s teams won the bronze: the pair team and the coxswainless four.

In tennis, the Romanian Davis cup team managed to stay in Group I of the Euro-African zone after they defeated Finland 3-2 in Cluj.

In October, Romania got two medals at the table tennis championships in Denmark. Daniela Dodean and Elizabeta Samara got the gold in the women’s doubles by defeating the Hungarian team Georgina Pota- Krisztina Toth. Then Adrian Crisan grabbed the bronze in the singles, a first for Romania’s male team in the last 50 years.

In November, the international star of Romanian origin Lucian Bute made a comeback. In Montreal, he defeated Russian fighter Denis Grachev in 12 rounds. It was the first fight for Bute after losing the IBF super middleweight belt to British boxer Carl Froch in May. After this victory, Bute now holds the NABF light heavyweight belt.

That same month, the women’s handball team Oltchim Ramnicu-Valcea qualified for the main groups of the Champions League after a flawless run. In group A, Romania’s champions won all six games it played.

The last important event of the year was also in women’s handball. Serbia hosted the European Championships. The winners were Montenegro, who defeated Norway in the finals. Romania got tenth place, with two victories, a tie and two defeats.
This is all for our 2012 sports retrospective. Let us wish all the best to our athletes in 2013, which we hope will bring only good news.