Fencer Ana-Maria Popescu is the only Romanian athlete to have walked away with a medal in an individual sports discipline, in this past summer's Tokyo Olympics. As of late, the Romanian fencer has yet again confirmed her standing as this past Saturday the defending Olympic champion won the silver medal in the World Epee Cup in Dubai, Reason enough for Radio Romania international to designate Ana-Maria Popescu the Athlete of the week.
In the United Arab Emirates, as part of the MK Fencing Academy International Epee Cup's group stage, Ana-Maria's trail included wins in the confrontations against UAE challengers Sheikha Al-Zaabi, Fajr Al-Marzooqi and Afra Abdalla, as well as against Ananya Navalekar of Great Britain. Ana maria Popescu then fought straight in the quarterfinals, where she had no problem outclassing Zainab Al-Hosany, also from UAE However, in the final, Ana maria Popescu was defeated, by the narrowest of margins, 14-15, by Estonia's Kristina Lehis, so the Romanian had to make do with the silver medal.
Fencing aficionados better know Ana-Maria Popescu by her maiden name, Ana-Maria Branza. She was born on 26 November 1984, in Bucharest. In 2001 Ana Maria compelled recognition for the first time in her career when she came in first at the World Cadets Championships in Poland. In 2002 she became world juniors champion in Turkey. 2002 was an auspicious year for Ana Maria, since she surprisingly came in 3rd at the World Seniors' Championships in Lisbon, Portugal. At the Athens Olympics, in 2004, when all hopes were pinned on Ana Maria, she unassumingly came in 16th according to the final rankings. However, the Romanian braced up and won the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Her feat was Romanian fencing's best performance at the Olympic games in China. However, Ana Maria Branza's career-best occurred in 2016. At the Rio Olympics, Ana Maria won the gold medal in the nations' competition. In Tokyo, in 2020, the Romanian won the silver medal in the women's singles. Ana-Maria Branza's most recent feat occurred last week, when she was awarded the World Cup Trophy for the 2020-2021 season. (Translation by Eugen Nasta)