Cerasela Pătrașcu (born 23 December 1992 in Balș, Olt County, Romania) is a Romanian artistic gymnast. She is a bronze world medalist and a gold European medalist with the team.
| Cerasela Pătrașcu | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal information | |
| Full name | Cerasela Ștefania Pătrașcu |
| Country represented |  Romania |
| Born | 23 December 1992 Balș |
| Discipline | Women's artistic gymnastics |
| Club | CSS Cetate Deva |
| Head coach(es) | Marian Bitang, Octavian Belu |
| Assistant coach(es) | Liliana Cozma, Lucian Sandu |
| Former coach(es) | Nicolae Forminte |
| Choreographer | Puia Valer |
| Retired | 2010 |
Early life and gymnastic career
editCerasela was a member of the national team at Deva and had a successful junior career medaling at various competitions. She was a silver medalist with the team at the 2006 Junior European Championships. In 2007, she won the 7th Lugano International Throphy[1] and medaled gold on vault, silver for all around and bronze on balance beam at the European Youth Olympic Festival.[2]
Senior career
edit2007-2008
editHer first major senior competition was the 2007 World Championships. Here she helped the team to qualify in the third place by competing on uneven bars and beam.[3] In the team finals she contributed to the team bronze medal by competing on uneven bars (14.750). She was also a team member at the 2008 European Championships. In the team qualifications she competed on vault (14.650) and on uneven bars (14.475) but she suffered a leg injury dismounting from bars and did not compete in the finals.[4][5] She underwent knee surgery with the hope that she will make it in the Olympic team. She had a short comeback and competed in the Romanian Nationals, Romanian Open and in a three-country meet (Romania, France, Germany) without doing difficult tumbling and dismounts.[6][7][8] However, she did not manage to make a full recovery and she needed a second knee surgery.[9]
2009-2010
editAfter being sidelined for more than a year she made a second comeback at the Romanian Nationals in September 2009. Here she competed only on beam and uneven bars.[10] In the beginning of 2010 she participated with her team at two friendly meets in Great Britain and in France where she competed on beam, uneven bars and vault.[11][12] In April she was a member of the Romanian team at the European Championships but she did not compete.[13] Later that year she traveled with her team at a friendly meet in Great Britain. Here she won gold in balance beam and with the team and placed fourth on vault and sixth on uneven bars.[14][15] In October she went with the national team in Rotterdam to compete at the 2010 World Championships. Here she helped her team qualify in the fourth place by competing on balance beam, vault and uneven bars, although she did not compete in the team final.[16]
Post-retirement
editShe retired after the 2010 World Championships due to health problems.[17]
Skills
editCerasela is a gymnast with gracious lines and "beautiful flexibility".[18] A picture of her performing on the balance beam was on the cover of March 2009 International Gymnast Magazine that celebrated the range of motion and unusual gymnastics flexibility.[18][19]
References
edit- ^ International Gymnast Magazine Patrascu, Sabot win in Switzerland, 2007
- ^ International Gymnast Magazine Golenkova best in Belgrade, 2007
- ^ Gymn Forum Results 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships; Women Qualification
- ^ International Gymnastics Magazine Romanian lead European Championships qualifications, April 3, 2008
- ^ International Gymnastics Magazine Romanians reclaim Europe; Italians fail to fourth, April 5, 2008
- ^ International Gymnastics Magazine Romanian Nationals Begin, June 26, 2008
- ^ International Gymnastics Magazine Nistor, Selariu win Romanian Open in Ploiesti, June 30, 2008
- ^ International Gymnastics Magazine Romania tops Germany, France, July 13, 2008
- ^ International Gymnastics Magazine Three Romanian face recovery, November 26, 2008
- ^ Prosport Pătrascu makes a comeback at the National Championships, September 15, 2009
- ^ Prosport Romania won team and all around, March 23, 2010 (Romanian)
- ^ Prosport Romania prevails in France, March 29, 2010 (Romanian)
- ^ European Gymnastics Archived April 19, 2010, at the Wayback Machine Teams
- ^ British Gymnastics Whelan and Cairns dominate in Ipswich
- ^ Romanian Gymnastics Federation Ipswich competition results
- ^ International Gymnast Magazine Russia on top as qualifications conclude, by Amanda Turner, October 17, 2010
- ^ Gymnastics No Ceiling Cerasela Pătrașcu interview by Beatrice Gheorghișor
- ^ a b Winter Wondering, by Paul Ziert, International Gymnast Magazine, vol 51, no 2, page 6, March 2009, ISSN 0891-6616
- ^ International Gymnast Magazine, (Cover) vol 51, no 2 March 2009, ISSN 0891-6616