Romanian fencers celebrate after winning the women’s epee final

The Romanian women’s epee team (Ana-Maria Branza, Simona Gherman, Simona Pop) has brought home the third gold medal of the Romanian delegation in Baku and the fourth of the fencers in the competition.

The final started out badly for the tricolours, Simona Pop losing the first duel, with Irina Embrich (3-5). Simona Gherman reset the balance (6-6) after facing off with Katrina Lehis. Two assaults followed in which Branza, Pop and, respectively, Kirpu and Lehis risked nothing and no points were scored. Ana-Maria Branza took Romania to the advantage after squaring off with Embrich (10-8), Gherman pushed the lead further against Kirpu, who is ranked 3rd in the world, (10-5), Julia Beljajeva reduced the difference against Branza (10-6). Simona Pop managed an excellent duel with Kirpu, gaining a further 5-point advantage for Romania (21-12), while Gherman managed to fend off Embrich’s attacks, managing a definitive win for Romania at 31-25.

The match against Estonia was a re-edit of the final of the European Championships in Montreux (Switzerland) that took place at the beginning of the month, when the tricolour conquered gold following a 45-35 win.

Qualified directly to the semifinals, Romania defeated Russia by 31-24. Before the final duel, the tricolours had a two-point advantage, 23-21, but Ana-Maria Branza, gold medalist in Baku in the individual competition, clearly dominated Sivkova (8-3), despite a leg injury, bringing the Romanian team’s victory.

Romanian men’s sabre team, silver in the finals


The Romanian men’s sabre team has gained the silver medal in the fencing event of the European Games in Baku (Azerbaijan), on Friday, after being defeated by Italy by one point, 45-44.

Massimiliano Murolo won the match by a surprising ballestra in the final exchange against Tiberiu Dolniceanu.

Italy led Romania (Tiberiu Dolniceanu, Iulian Teodosiu, Alin Badea) for the most part of the final, but the tricolours were close to the gold medals. Murolo took Italy on the advantage after the first duel against Teodosiu (5-2). Dolniceanu reduced the difference in the duel against Alberto Pellegrini (10-8) after leveling the score at one point (8-8).

Luigi Miracco consolidated the advantage of the Italians at the expense of Badea (15-12), but Teodosiu managed a remarkable performance against Pellegrini (20-19). Murolo bested Badea (25-22), but Dolniceanu turned the score to Romania’s advantage after defeating Miracco (29-30). The situation remained in Romania’s advantage after the clash between Pellegrini and Badea (34-35), but Italy managed to once again take the lead following the Miracco — Teodosiu face-off (40-38).

The decisive match, between Dolniceanu and Murolo was dominated by the Romanian fencer in its first part, Dolniceanu managing four consecutive points, bringing the score to 40-42, but the Italian managed to score 3 points in a row (43-42) and while Dolniceanu leveled the score twice, Murolo won thanks to his ballestra.

In the semifinal Romania had defeated, just as dramatically, Germany, by 45-44, while in the quarterfinals the Romanian fencers outright defeated Hungary by 45-34.

In the match for the bronze medal, Germany disposed of Russia by 45-44.

The medal tally of the Romanian delegation in Baku is of 12 medals: 3 gold, 5 silver, and 4 bronze medals. AGERPRES

Members of team Romania pose with their gold medals on the podium after winning the women’s Team Epee final during the Baku 2015 European Games

On Friday Romania claimed the gold through the women’s epee team and silver through the men’s sabre team.

Gold medallist Andreea Chitu shows her medal during the award ceremony for the women’s 52kg Judo competition at the European Games in Baku

A breakdown of the medal count is as follows: gold for fencer Ana-Maria Branza in the women’s individual epee competition, for judoka Andreea Chitu in the women’s 52-kg category, and for the women’s epee team (Ana-Maria Branza, Simona Gherman, Simona Pop, Amalia Tataran); silver for gymnast Andreea Iridon in the beam event of the women’s artistic gymnastics competition, for rowers Roxana Borha and Elena Meroniac in the women’s kayak double (K2) 500m race, the aerobic gymnastics team (Lavinia Panaete, Bianca Gorgovan, Dacian Barna, Gabriel Bocser and Lucian Savulescu), fencer Tiberiu Dolniceanu in the men’s individual sabre competition and the men’s sabre team (Tiberiu Dolniceanu, Alin Badea, Iulian Teodosiu, Madalin Bucur); bronze for gymnast Andreea Iridon in the women’s uneven bars event, gymnast Marius Berbecar in the men’s parallel bars event, Daniela Hondiu in the women’s 60-kg sambo event and Simona Gherman in the women’s individual epee event.

In the overall medal standings as of June 26, Russia was firmly on top with 69 gold, 34 silver and 36 bronze medals, followed by Azerbaijan with an 18-14-20 count, the UK with 16—8-16, Germany 14-14-31, a.s.o. AGERPRES

Photo credit: (c) Cristian NISTOR / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Andreea Chitu, the world vice champion of the 52 kg category this year in Chelyabinsk and winner of the Tashkent Grand Prix, lost the final to Kosovar Majlinda Kelmendi by a waza ari (half point) and settled for the second place.

Corina Caprioriu, Olympic vice champion of the 57 kg category in London and gold medallist in the Tashkent Grand Prix this year, ended third in Abu Dhabi owing to a victory by ippon (whole point) against Canadian Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard in the bout for the bronze medal.AGERPRES