Fifty Moldovan sportspersons will contend at the European Games that will take place in Minsk during June 21-30, 2019. The person who will carry Moldova’s flag at the opening ceremony hasn’t been yet chosen, IPN reports.
Moldova will have the most representatives at wrestling tournaments. Alexandru Chirtoacă, Andrei Prepeliță, Denis Balaur, Nicolai Ceban, Samhan Jabrailov, Anastasia Nikita, Mariana Cherdivară-Eșanu, Iulia Leorda and Emilia Cîrîcu-Budeanu will compete in freestyle wrestling, while Victor Ciobanu, Igor Beșleagă and Viorel Burduja in Greco-Roman wrestling.
The squad also includes ten boxers, namely Victor Vacula, Dorin Bucșa, Dmitri Galagoț, Vasilii Belous, Victor Karapchevskii, Andrei Kiriakov, Andrei Zatușevschii, Alexei Zavatin, Nicolae Bunescu, and Cristina Kravchenko, and seven sambo players - Sergiu Oșlobanu, Denis Tachii, Paulina Eșanu, Mariana Donos, Sabina Artemchuk, Natalia Budeanu and Victoria Bolohan.
Three federations delegated by five athletes – judokas Denis Vieru, Vadim Bunescu, Victor Sterpu, Ion Nacu and Nicon Zaboroshchuk, cyclists Vladislav Kotoras, Cristian Railean, Veaceslav Rusnac, Andrei Vrabii and Arman Garibean, and canoeists Oleg Tarnovski, Oleg Nuța, Ilie Oprea, Maria Olăraș and Daniela Cociu.
The team also includes archers Dan Olaru and Alexandra Mîrca, who took part in the Olympic Games, badminton players Cristian Savin and Vlada Gînga, who competed in the Buenos Aires Youth Olympics, table tennis player Andrei Puțuntică and shooter Andrei Alferin.
The Minsk European Games will involve more than 4,000 athletes from 50 countries. Moldova will compete in ten of the 15 events. It won’t be represented at athletics, basketball, beach soccer, gymnastics and karate. In ten events, the competitors could earn qualifications for the 20120 Tokyo Olympics.
At the first edition of the European Games held in Baku in 2015, Moldova’s squad won three medals in wrestling. Piotr Ianulov medaled silver, while Alexandru Chirtoacă and Svetlana Saenko won bronzes.
