Five sportspeople to represent Moldova at Paralympic Games in Paris

Chisinau, 25 July /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova will be represented by five sportspeople at the Paris Paralympic Games, due on 28 August – 8 September. The national team will compete at three sports event – para-judo, para powerlifting and para athletics.   

For the first time ever, three members of the national para judo team got the right to participate in the Paralympic Games. Among them, Oleg Cretul and Ion Basoc presently ranks second in the world (at the weight categories of 90 kg and 90+), which gives the Moldovan team real chances for victory.  

Last year, Cretul and Basoc managed to become European champions, both getting bronze medals at the World Championships and the Grand Prix in Tokyo, regarded as the most prestigious para judo tournament in the world.    

Ina Cernei (weight category of up to 57 kg) will debut at the Paris Paralympic Games, thus becoming the first judoka woman due to represent Moldova at this level.   

Larisa Marinenkova, who will compete at para powerlifting, veteran of the Moldovan Paralympic movement, will participate in the fifth consecutive edition of the Paralympic Games. She will also bear the flag of Moldova’s national team at the ceremony on the opening of the Games.     

Gheorghe Spînu, an emerging sportsman in the Moldovan para athletics, will compete at the category of F35. In last May, the sportsman ranked seventh at the World Para Athletics Championships.