Team Romania for Tokyo2020 Paralympic Games lines up 7 athletes, three medals targeted

Team Romania to the Tokyo Paralympic Games (24 August - 5 September) will be made up of 7 athletes, who will compete in table tennis, judo, athletics, cycling and archery, their goal being to win three medals, the vice-president of the National Paralympic Committee, Ciprian Anton, told AGERPRES. "We will have seven athletes, one in table tennis, Bobi Simion, one in judo, Alex Bologa, two in athletics, Octavian Tucaliuc and Tabita Vulturar, one in archery, Eugen Patru, and two others in cycling, Eduard Novak and Eduard Moescu. Certainly it could have been better, but the basis for selecting to participate in such a large event, the Paralympic Games being the largest event in the world, requires the best resources. I'm confident that we could be present in the Paralympics in France in 2024 with a much bigger team and maybe we could bring new sports, badminton, swimming, because we have very good juniors now. We also train for a good representation in the Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing, next March, with snowboarding and alpine skiing," Anton added. The official of the National Paralympic Committee hopes that three of the Romanian athletes will succeed in climbing the podium at the competition in Japan. The Romanian delegation is composed of 15 people, the rules imposed by the organizers prohibiting the presence of a medical team or companions for the Paralympic athletes. So far, Romania has won four medals at the Paralympic Games, three of which were won by Eduard Novak, the current Minister of Youth and Sports, gold in 2012, in London (cycling - individual pursuit, category C4), silver in 2008 in Beijing (cycling - setback, cat. LC2) and in London in 2012 (cycling - setback, cat. C4), as well as a bronze medal won by Alex Bologa, in 2016, in Rio (judo - cat. 60 kg).AGERPERS(RO - author: Adrian Tone, editor: Mihai Tenea; EN - editor: Maria Voican)