The first major sporting event of the year in athletics was hosted by Istanbul in Turkey. The European Indoor Athletics Championships brought together roughly 600 athletes from 47 countries and Romania was represented by 14 athletes, 7 in the men's competitions and 7 in the women's contests. Four of them had made it to the finals of their competitions: Claudia Bobocea in the 15 hundred meter race. Alina Rotaru and Gabriel Bitan in the long jump event and Gabriela Stanciu in the high jump contest. Bitan won bronze in the event and Bobocea became silver medalist and has also been designated Athlete of the Week by Radio Romania International.
We recall that Romania also put up a good show at the 2015 indoor edition in Prague, when Marian Oprea became bronze medalist in the triple jump event and Florentina Iusco in the long jump event. At the latest edition in Torun, Poland, the best Romanian performance was obtained by Daniela Stanciu who came fifth in the high jump c
Sursa foto: aimx.ro
Romanian athlete Gabriel Bitan qualified on Thursday evening for the final of the long jump event at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Torun (Poland), with 7.78 meters, according to AGERPRES.
Bitan (22 years old), who last month won the title of indoor national champion, with 8.14 meters, finished the qualifications on the 7th place, his other jumps having 7.51 meters, respectively 7.43 meters.
The best performance was achieved by the Swede Thobias Montler, with 8.18 meters. Having no previous experience, to be honest, I got a little lost when I entered the track. But from jump to jump I managed to recover a bit and qualify for the final. Tomorrow [Friday] I can say that I already have experience and I hope to be at 100% at the first attempt, Gabriel Bitan told the official website of the Romanian Athletics Federation.
Sursa foto: rtv.net
The head of the Romanian Athletics Federation, Florin Florea, on Wednesday told AGERPRES that the Romanian athletes who are to participate in the European Indoor Athletics Championships for seniors, which will take place between March 4 and 7, in the Polish city of Torun, will be fighting for medals, with our national team aiming to climb the podium. First of all, I want to thank the athletes and coaches for the way they trained during this period because it was not easy. And they already gave us a pleasant surprise because we have a delegation of 15 athletes. This is a very good thing, we also have athletes who have set personal records this winter, which, again, is a very good thing. We also have athletes who are in the top five in Europe, like Andrea Miklos (400 m) and Gabriel Bitan (in length), and it is clear that we are going there to fight for medals. There are other athletes too, who will fight for medals, like Florentina Iusco, Alina Rotaru, Claudia Bo