Andrei Cornea and Marian Enache won the men’s double rowing final at the Paris Olympics.
Romanian rowers Andrei Cornea and Marian Enache won the gold medals in the men’s double sculls, Thursday, at the Olympic Games in Paris, after a race they led almost entirely.
Cornea and Enache started a strong sprint on the last hundred meters of the race, breaking away decisively in a race won with a time of 6 min 12 sec 58/100.
The silver medals went to the Netherlands (Melvin Twellaar, Stef Broenink), in 6 min 13 sec 92/100, the podium being completed by Ireland (Daire Lynch, Philip Doyle), in 6 min 15 sec 17/100.
Cornea and Enache caught the final in extremis, but brought Romania’s first Olympic medal in history in the men’s double rowing event. Enache also participated in the Olympic Games in Tokyo, also in double rowing, ranking 9th.
Marian Enache said after winning the gold medal: “To be honest, we were satisfied with any medal, but I didn’t come with the idea of winning. I woke up in the morning and I even told Andrei that it is the 1st, we are on the 1st aisle and it is 100 years since the last edition of the Olympic Games in Paris and we have all the signs and all the statistics to be able to win this gold Olympic.”
“I want people to know that it’s not success that just came naturally, it’s 13 workouts a week. Both trainings – we have 2 trainings per day – last somewhere between 5-7 hours. It wasn’t easy for us at all, we worked hard. I have worked for the last 16 years for this result,” he added.
Andrei Cornea also stated: “First of all, we are colleagues, we are also friends, a bond of friendship that was formed after this boat. Along with the boat came friendship, much bigger. We are a team first and foremost, we were brought together and we understood each other from the first kick, in our terms I would say, until the last one, which was after the finish line, today at the Olympics”.
Ancuța Bodnar and Simona Radiş won the silver in double rowing
Romanian rowers Ancuța Bodnar and Simona Radiş won the silver medals in the women’s double rowing event, on Thursday, at the Olympic Games in Paris.
The Olympic champions from Tokyo led at 1,000 meters, but finished in second place, in 6 min 50 sec 69/100, being overtaken at the end by New Zealand (Brooke Francis, Lucy Spoors), at only 14/100 (6 :50.45). The bronze medals went to Great Britain (Mathilda Hodgkins Byrner, Rebecca Wilde), recorded in 6 min 53 sec 22/100.
Bodnar and Radiş have the best Olympic time of the event since Tokyo (6:41.03). Romania qualified nine crews in the Finals A at the Paris Olympics out of the twelve it had: women’s double sculls – light category, women’s sculls, men’s sculls, men’s four sculls, men’s sculls, women’s sculls, four female frames, eight plus one female, eight plus one male.
Men 8+1 team in the final
The men’s 8+1 team qualified for the Olympic final. Florin Lehaci, Florin Arteni, Mugurel Semciuc, Marius Cozmiuc, Constantin Adam, Bogdan Baitoc, Laurențiu Danciu, Mihăiță Țigănescu and Adrian Muntean finished in 3rd place in the requalifications.
“The coaches’ strategy paid off and Romania can be proud of 9 crews in the finals, among the first 6 nations, in 9 trials, from 12 tricolor boats at the start of the competition. The boys race was for life and qualification, the Romanians started well from lane 5 and halfway through the race they were in 4th place. Next came the finish, which shows excellent physical and mental preparation. Romania crossed the finish line 3rd, after Holland and Germany, with 5:30.00,” the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee announced on Facebook.