Rio Olympics: Romanian athletes results on day 1

The first day of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro was a bad day for many Romanian athletes, on the other hand some of them have succeeded to qualify to the next round of the competitions.

• Gymnastics – Marian Dragulescu, 35, has qualified to the final of the vault event, but failed to succeed the same for the floor event. Andrei Muntean has qualified in the men’s uneven bars final.
• Table tennis – Elisabeta Samara, Daniela Dodean Monteiro have qualified to the third round of the women’s singles event. Samara defeated Gui Lin (Brazil) 4-0 (11-6, 11-9, 11-3, 12-10), will face Ding Ning (China – main favourite) on Sunday. Daniela Dodean defeated Li Qian (Poland) 4-1 (12-10, 11-9, 11-9, 5-11, 11-8) and will face in the next round Ai Fukuhara (Japan – 4^th favourite). In the men’s competition, Adrian Crisan has qualified on Saturday to the second round, after defeating Sharath Kamal Achanta (India) 4-1 (11-8, 14-12, 9-11, 11-6, 11-8) and will face Emmanuel Lebesson (France) in the next round in Sunday.
• Tennis – In the doubles event, the Romanian pair Florin Mergea/Horia Tecau defeated 6-3, 6-2 Federico Delbonis/Guillermo Duran (Argentina). In women’s singles event, Monica Niculescu (28, 56^th WTA) defeated on Saturday Veronica Cepede Royg (Paraguay) 6-2, 6-3.
• Women’s handball – surprise defeat for Romania against Angola 23-19 in Group A! In other matches of the group: Brazil vs. Norway 31-28, Spain vs. Montenegro 25-10. Romania’s next match is against Brazil on August 8.
• Fencing – None of the Romanian woman athletes has succeeded in qualifying to the final rounds. Ana Maria Popescu (Branza) was defeated in the epee individual event in the second round by Injeon Choi (Korea). Simona Pop and Simona Gherman were defeated in the first round.
• Judo – Monica Ungureanu was defeated by ippon on Saturday in the 48 kg category by reigning European Champion Charline van Snick (Belgium).