The International Gymnastics Federation has officially approved Romanian gymnasts Catalina Ponor’s (24) and Marian Dragulescu’s (31) return to active duty. The Romanian Gymnastics Federation was informed of the decision on March 31. The two gymnasts are once again registered within FIG’s Anti-doping Pool. Catalina Ponor and Marian Dragulescu will have to observe FIG regulations after they start competing on October 1, 2011.
Ponor won three Olympic titles in Athens in 2004 (the team event, the balance beam event and the floor event), 3 silver and 2 bronze medals at the World Championships, and 5 gold, one silver and one bronze medal at the European Championships. Ponor had retired in December 2007.
Dragulescu won three medals at the Olympic Games in 2004 (silver in floor event, bronze in team and vault events), eight gold and one silver medal at the World Championships, 9 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals at the European Championships. Marian Dragulescu retired several times before, most recently in January this year.
At the same time, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation announced that our gymnasts will no longer take part in the World Cup stage in Moscow (May 14-15) “as a consequence of the head coaches’ decision, a decision that took into account training considerations.” Sandra Izbasa, Ana Porgras, Diana Chelaru, Flavius Koczi and Marius Berbecar would have taken part in the competition.
