The gold medal that Moldova has been waiting for 10 years

A statuette with the symbol of the European Weightlifting Championships in Chisinau - the tour. Photo © instagram.com

At the opening of the tournament, Education and Research Minister Dan Perchun said the championship “opens an important page in the country’s sporting history.”

– Our athletes have been given a great opportunity to demonstrate their strength in front of the native public and all the guests we were looking forward to having here. The Republic of Moldova has a rich tradition in weightlifting. The name of the Olympic champion Tudor Casapu is well known all over the world. Along with him, we honor the merits of Oleg Sirgi, Serghei Cecir, Natalia Prischepa, Marin Robu, Tudor Bratu and Elena Erygina, athletes who won important medals at European and world championships,” Dan Perciun said.

14 million lei were allocated for the organization of the tournament, of which 6.5 million lei came from the Ministry of Education and Research. The remaining sum – about 7.5 million lei – was allocated by the specialized federation, sponsors, partners and municipal authorities.

This budget is more than half of what was spent on the European Championships in Bulgaria last year. Experts noted that €1.5 million euros is an extremely large sum for a country that, unlike Moldova, has a solid experience in organizing competitions of this scale.

Before the beginning of the championship, the Congress of the European Weightlifting Federation (EWF) took place in Chisinau, where a new president of the organization was elected. He was Astrit Hasani from Kosovo, who succeeded Antonio Conflitti, who from 2021 combined the positions of president of the EWF and the Moldovan Weightlifting Federation.

The newly elected head of the EWF was impressed with the organization of the tournament. According to Hasani, he received positive feedback from the representatives of 41 countries, whose athletes came to the European Championships. He expressed confidence that “Moldova will host more than one championship of such a high level in the future”. Antonio Conflitti reiterated the importance of the high evaluations of the guests for the host country.

The authorities highly appreciated the importance of the event and canceled customs duties on the import of all sports equipment before the championship. World standard barbells, disks of different weights, special belts worn by weightlifters, wrist bands and compression cuffs were imported. Their total cost was estimated at €206 thousand, and customs duties with VAT would amount to about €40 thousand. Upon completion of the competitions, the equipment will be handed over to specialized sports schools across the country.

The championship was not without some minor political incidents. Two weightlifters, two coaches and a doctor from Russia and Belarus were restricted from entering the territory of Moldova due to “threat to national security”. The rest of the members of the sports delegations of both countries were subjected to reinforced border control.

It is worth mentioning that all athletes admitted to the championship participated in the competitions under a neutral flag. Some won places on the podium – Evgeni Tikhontsov from Belarus became the absolute champion of Europe in the weight category up to 102 kg, and Zarina Gusalova from Russia – silver medalist in the weight category up to 72 kg (small gold medal in snatch and small bronze – in jerk).

The Moldavian team won 13 medals – 4 gold medals (1 big and 3 small in individual exercises – snatch and jerk), 4 silver medals (of which 2 big ones) and 5 bronze medals (one big one). In the team standings our national team (women’s and men’s figures are taken into account) took 6th place. Bulgaria, Turkey, Armenia, Great Britain and Italy are higher. The detailed list of medalists with their results in both exercises is given in the table.

Weightlifter Elena Erigina (Kilchik) achieved a historic success. She brought Moldova the first medal of the highest dignity at the European Championship for 10 years, winning the competitions in both snatch and deadlift. Last time the absolute European champion in 2015 was Oleg Sirgi in the weight category up to 56 kg. Then the Moldovan weightlifter took the 5th place in snatch (113 kg), but more than overtook his rivals in jerk (151 kg).

The athlete’s coach Sergiu Cretu explained what helped her to succeed. “Discipline, hard work, character – three components of Elena’s success. She demonstrated what she is really capable of. It’s a pity she couldn’t qualify for the Olympic Games. I’m sure she would have shown a good result there,” the mentor noted.

– The previous three years I lost in the fight for the first place. This time I had a lot of courage, which helped me to win. When the anthem was played, I wanted to cry. I restrained myself, but then I cried a little,” Elena shared her emotions.

The success of the sportswoman was highly appreciated in her native Gagauzia. The report of the Department for Youth and Sports of the autonomy expresses gratitude for the sports successes. “At this prestigious tournament, Gagauzia was worthily represented by four talented sportswomen: Maria Mitioglo, Ekaterina Kurovskaia, Elena Erygina and Anastasia Kylchik. Elena’s performance was especially proud and admired as she showed a high level of skill, endurance and sportsmanship, leaving behind her rivals from all over Europe. We congratulate our sportswomen with a worthy participation and wish them new victories and achievements! Gagauzia is proud of you!” – is said in the message of the department.

Danu Secrieru, an athlete from Ungheni, pleasantly surprised the fans of weightlifting. In the weight category up to 55 kg, the weightlifter, who turned 17 two months ago, became vice-champion of Europe, being better than his older athletes. He was third in the snatch, but he showed great will, demonstrating a perfect result in the snatch (135 kg), thus climbing to the second step of the podium.

Moldova passed the battle test and demonstrated the ability to organize a high-level tournament with the participation of the world’s leading athletes. It is pleasant to realize that we become witnesses of large, really important tournaments in our country. With the level of organization of the European Weightlifting Championships, we proved that the victory over Georgia and Albania – other candidates to host the tournament – was not a coincidence.

The results of Moldovan athletes at the European Weightlifting Championships
Athlete	Weight category	Jerk (kg)	Place	Push (kg)	Place	Final result
Women
Gabriela Danilova	up to 45 kg	69	4	81	6	150 kg (5)
Ekaterina Grabucha	up to 45 kg	62	8	80	8	142 kg (8)
Alina Popescu	up to 49 kg	70	8	85	12	155 kg (10)
Nicoleta Cojocaru	up to 55 kg	79	10	103	7	182 kg (10)
Maria Mitioglo	up to 59 kg	76	19	90	19	166 kg (19)
Alexandrina Ciubotaru	up to 76 kg	99	8	124	6	223 kg (8)
Adriana Konak	up to 76 kg	78	24	100	24	178 kg (24)
Elena Yerygina (Kylchik)	up to 81 kg	106	1	136	1	242 kg (1)
Ekaterina Kurowska	up to 81 kg	86	13	101	16	187 kg (16)
Anastasia Kylchik	over 87 kg	94	8	116	5	210 kg (7)
Men
Danu Sekrieru	up to 55 kg	110	3	135	2	245 kg (2)
Julian Betka	up to 55 kg	100	11	127	9	227 kg (10)
Ion Badanev	up to 61 kg	123	5	152	3	275 kg (4)
Daniel Lungu	up to 61 kg	122	6	142	8	264 kg (7)
Gabriel Danilov	up to 67 kg	120	10	138	10	258 kg (10)
Victor Moroceanu	up to 81 kg	148	10	175	9	323 kg (9)
Georgy Cherney	up to 81 kg	152	6	____	____	152 kg (17)
Marin Robu	up to 89 kg	173	1	202	2	375 kg (2)
Tudor Bratu	up to 102 kg	176	3	210	3	386 kg (3)
Tudor Ciobanu	up to 102 kg	156	8	196	6	352 kg (8)