08. Mai 2007  
Bucharest / Romania  
Artistic Gymnastics

Ponor will train for this year s Worlds and next year s Olympics

Catalina Ponor: New Olympic Dreams!

Olympic Champion Ponor reunites with Former Coach
Romania's triple Olympic champion Catalina Ponor said to the press she would rejoin her former coach Mariana Bitang to train for this year's world championships and the 2008 Beijing Games.
Ponor told that Matei Stanei, who has been coaching her from January, has health problems and that the switch to Bitang will improve her chances of winning Olympic gold in China ...

Ponor and her former coach Matej Stanei

"I feel determined and ready to support any effort to accomplish my new Olympic dream," Ponor told Reuters by telephone.

The 20-year-old Ponor, who won gold in the team event and individual beam and floor exercises in Athens, did not compete at last month's European championships in Amsterdam due to illness.

Maria Bitang said Ponor would be challenging for medals in Beijing:
"Ponor is the best ever Romanian athlete on the balance beam so the Olympics in Beijing will probably be a new triumph for her, .
Source: Reuters & Romanian press