After a period of relative silence, the last days’ newspapers came with a lot of news regarding both women and men Romanian artistic gymnastics.

1. According to Prosport, Gabriela Dragoi (beam bronze medalist at the Europeans 2009) and the new senior Diana Chelaru are going to participate at the World Cup competition organized in Glasgow on May 14-17. “Their training is going well. Dragoi only performs on bars and beam; she has still pain, but only during more difficult training. At the end of this month she will have the medical exam and we will find out if she can work on all four events without risking”, Forminte said.

2. Although initially the other gymnast to represent Romania at this competition was announced to be Sandra Izbasa, the Olympic floor champion had to be replaced with Diana Chelaru, because of health problems [rn: Sandra suffered recently a small surgery at her foot].  „The most important thing now for Chelaru is to gain experience and to have much better routines at the Worlds compared to the ones presented at the Europeans. We would like her to grow so much until next year so that she can fight for the medals”, the National team head coach added.

3. Some good news (and great surprise!) about the guys came from the Adevarul newspaper. It seems that Marian Dragulescu decided to come back to the national team. „It is true, I have talked to the head coach and I have already started training”, Dragulescu said.

Apparently he cannot get used with being just a coach at Dinamo. According to Elisabeta Lipa, the president of CS Dinamo, Marian also had a discussion with her before taking the decision of coming back in the gym.

4. Both good and bad news for the men Olympic team, who is affected these days by the early retirement of Cosmin Malita (20), obliged to take this decision because of serious health problems (first degree of cervical discopathy). „I had pain in my neck, both during training and during leisure. There is a chance of having a surgery, but it’s too risky. Moreover, it’s little chance that I could ever reach the same level again. I am so sorry that I have to retire after so many years of hard work, but health is my first priority. Even if I did not reach the performance I wanted to as a sportsman, I hope I will as a coach”, Cosmin declared to Adevarul (he is already back home in Resita).

Cosmin Malita helped the Romanian men team qualify for the Olympics. Unfortunately, he injured himself during the training camp in Sfantu Gheorghe before the Olympics. Malita placed 5^th AA during the Junior Europeans in Volos, in 2006. He also won three Balcanic titles that year, plus national silver on pommel horse in 2007. He is the European bronze medalist with the team in 2008.

5. Another event reffers to  Octavian Bellu, the former head coach of the female Romanian gymnastics team, who, according to an article published in Jurnalul National, is going to be included in the Hall of Fame during a ceremony which is going to take place in Oklahoma on May 12.

So, as you can see, a lot of things are happening these days…We would like to express our regret for Cosmin’s retirement and wish him lots of health and good luck in the future. We would also like to wish good luck to our girls at the Glasgow World Cup and congratulate Mr. Bellu for his admission in the prestigious Hall of Fame. We’ll keep you informed.

Crisloregym