31. August 2005  
Bucharest / Romania  
Artistic Gymnastics

Romanian National Olympic Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Team dissolved

Romanian team in better times....

Romanian Olympians May Miss Worlds
A weekend escapade by several members of the senior women's team has put Romania's world medal chances in jeopardy in 2005, Romanian newspaper 'Gazeta Sporturilor' reported yesterday.
After weeks and even months of disputes between gymnasts, club coaches and national team coaches Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang, on Monday the Romanian National Olympic Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Seniors Team has been dissolved.
Both coaches furthermore requested a cancellation of their contracts with the Romanian Gymnastics Federation and the Romanian Olympic Committee. Gymnasts have been send home to continue training at home clubs...
Monica Rosu and Alexandra Eremia had been sent home two weeks ago for reasons of weight problems and lack of motivation, the remaining members of the squad (Catalina Ponor, Floarea Leonida and Dana Sofronie) also were sent home being picked up today by their parents at the Sports Hotel in Bucharest where the team was accommodated while preparing for the World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, scheduled in November.
Subsequent to the Federation’s Executive Board and Federal Coaches Octavian Belu, Mariana Bitang and Anca Grigoras decided in an emergency session yesterday to dissolve the squad, all gymnasts also requested a personal conversation with the President of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, Nicolae Vieru.
Dana Sofronie decided to retire right away, Floarea Leonida is going to make up her mind whether she is going to retire or not in the next couple of days.

Before the session, Catalina Ponor already declared that she does not want to work with Octavian Belu anymore, expressing the wish to be coached by her first coach Matei Stanei
The scandal has a chronology which runs as follows:
- Last weekend in the night from Saturday to Sunday, Catalina Ponor and Floarea Leonida, while being in Bucharest in training camp, left the hotel without informing their coaches (backdoor) and went to a club where a member of the men’s national junior team celebrated his 18th birthday with a majority-party. Returning to the hotel at 4 am in the morning they where received at the entrance of the hotel by national coaches Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang as well as Romanian National Television TVR, after journalists and photographers informed officials that both gymnasts attend this birthday event, “consuming beverages with ice and lemon slices” (turning out to having been cola).
Both (former) national coaches (B&B) declared that the national team has not been dissolved on their request.
All gymnasts, including suspended Monica Rosu however recently presumed that Belu and Bitang want to “get rid of” all current gymnasts on the seniors team in view of the next Olympic Games in Beijing 2008 intending to replace them by juniors currently training at the national juniors center in Deva.

Belu declared that he does not want to work with t h i s team anymore later even saying “I am never going to coach the national team again”.
According to Romanian Olympic Committee officials he is conversely willing to negotiate new conditions under which he would return to a new national seniors squad…
Octavian Belu stated that he is not willing to make compromises to any further extent. He has particular expectations to the gymnasts he’s working with; both regarding team training intensity and training volume, as well as physical condition and motivation. Admitting that this centralized system is dating from communist times he justifies it with the undoubtedly remarkable results he achieved during his career as a coach within the Romanian national gymnastics structures.

Gymnasts will be accompanied by home club coaches in case they should be selected to compete in the World Championships, selections being held at the National Championships in mid-October.
The next national team will probably be made up of the juniors national team currently coached by Nicolae Forminte (- former coach of Simona Amanar) who will probably also become successor to Belu as the National Seniors Team Head Coach.
Source: Gazeta Sporturilor / Prosport / Advarul / Ziua / Mediafax
E.W.H.