Romania’s women’s epee team won the gold medal on Thursday in Rio after defeating China, the reigning team epee gold medalists, 44-38. This is the first time Romania wins gold in a fencing team event and the medal is Romania’s first at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
Romania’s team featured Simona Gherman, Simona Pop, alternate Loredana Dinu, and Ana-Maria Popescu, winner of a Silver Medal in the individual epee event at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. In the final, Popescu established an early lead after facing China’s Sun Yujie (1-0). Pop preserved the advantage in her face-off with Xu Anqi (5-4) and Gherman brought Romania even further in the lead against Sun Yiwen (9-6). China’s Sun Yujie reduced the gap (10-9), but Popescu brought Romania back in front after facing dominating Hao Jialu (14-9). Gherman topped Xu (21-14), and Dinu cemented Romania’s advantage to 24-16 in her face-off with Hao. In a late comeback, Yujie brought China within five points of Romania (25-30) while playing Gherman, but Ana Maria Popescu topped Xu to set the score at 44-38 and secure the Gold Medal.
The medal adds to Romania’s Olympic fencing medal tally, which includes Mihai Covaliu’s Gold and Silver and Bronze medals in men’s sabre individual in Sydney (2000) and Beijing (2008) respectively, Ana Maria Branza’s (now Popescu) Silver medal at the 2008 Olympic Games, Laura Badea’s gold medal in Atlanta (1996) in women’s foil individual and Ionel Dramba’s Ciudad de Mexico (1968) gold medal in men’s foil individual.
The Romanian team was cheered on to victory by other athletes in the Romanian Olympic delegation to Rio, including the women’s handball team.
The bronze medal in the team epee event went to Russia (Tatiana Logunova, Violetta Kolobova, Lyubov Shutova, Olga Kochneva), which topped Estonia (Irina Embrich, Julia Beljajeva, Erika Kirpu, Kristina Kuusk), 37-31 in the third-place meet. Read more aboutDownload PDF or read online: November 2021 Issue | Business Review Magazine read more
Photo courtsey of FIE.
Georgeta Gheorghe
