Ion Cernea

Ion Cernea

Ion Cernea (born October 21, 1936 in Râu Alb , Hunedoara County ) is a former Romanian wrestler . He was a two-time Olympic medalist.

Career

Ion Cernea started wrestling in Bucharest at the age of 15 . As a teenager he learned the profession of a lathe operator and, after showing great talent as a wrestler, became a member of a Romanian security body and a member of the Dinamo Bucharest sports club . There he was trained by trainer Ion Corneanu to be an excellent wrestler in the Greco-Roman style. In 1954 he was the first Romanian junior champion in the Greco-Roman style flyweight. In 1958 he won the Balkan flyweight championship. After further good results in strong international tournaments, Ion was used for the first time at an international championship at the 1958 World Cup in Budapest . After a win in the first round, he met Olympic champion Imre Hódos from Hungary and the Soviet champion Oleg Karawajew , against whom he lost, in the next two rounds . A 7th place in bantamweight was the result.

Two years later, Ion landed his first major international success by winning the silver medal at the Olympic Games in Rome . In the fight for the gold medal, he was again defeated by Oleg Karavaev.

In 1961 Ion was also runner-up in the bantamweight division in Yokohama . In the final he failed again to Oleg Karavaev. In 1962 and 1963 he won three fights each at the World Championships in Toledo / Ohio and Helsingborg , but lost the fourth fight each time and therefore finished fifth twice.

In 1964, Ion won his second Olympic medal in Tokyo . He struggled and a. Draw against former world champion János Varga from Hungary , but lost again to a Soviet wrestler, Wladlen Trostjanski .

In 1965, Ion achieved the greatest success of his career at the World Championships in Tampere . He became world champion with four wins and one draw against the Japanese Kōji Sakurama .

He then ended his career as an active wrestler, became a coach in the Romanian Wrestling Association and was head coach of the team in the Greco-Roman style for years.

International success

OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, GR = Greco-Roman. Style, Fl = fly weight, Ba = bantam weight, back then up to 52 kg or 57 kg body weight.

• 1955, 2nd place , World Youth Festival, GR, Fl, behind Osman, Egypt and in front of Lennart Viitala , Finland ;
• 1955, 1st place , "Adria-Cup" in Pula , GR, Fl. before Borivoje Vukov , Yugoslavia a . Georg Schwaiger , FRG ;
• 1957, 1st place , "Adria-Cup" in Opatija , GR, Ba, before Sahrettin Özden, Turkey a . Toth, Czechoslovakia ;
• 1958, 7th place , World Championships in Budapest , GR, Ba, with a victory over Nederpelt, Netherlands a . Defeats against Imre Hódos , Hungary a . Oleg Karavaev , Soviet Union ;
• 1959, 2nd place , tournament in Split , GR, Ba, behind Imre Hódos u. before Sahrettin Özden;
• 1960, silver medal , OS in Rome , GR, Ba, with victories over Michel Benahoum, Morocco , Laurens Alflen, Netherlands, Gilberto Gramellini, Italy a . Bernard Knitter , Poland , a tie against Imre Hódos u. a loss to Oleg Karavaev;
• 1961, 2nd place , World Championship in Yokohama , GR, Ba, with victories over Sahrettin Özden, Bernard Knitter, Masamitsu Ichiguchi , Japan a . Hassan Rajabi, Iran a . a loss to Oleg Karavaev;
• 1962, 5th place , World Cup in Toledo / USA , GR, Ba, with victories over Tauno Jaskari , Finland, Dinko Petrow , Bulgaria a . Carmen Molina, USA a. a loss to Amari Egadze , Soviet Union;
• 1963, 5th place , World Cup in Helsingborg , GR, Ba, with victories over Egil Hansen, Norway , Kurt Johanesson, Sweden , Fritz Stange , FRG, a draw against Oleg Karawajew u. a loss to Dinko Petrov;
• 1964, bronze medal , OS in Tokyo , GR, Ba, with victories over Bernard Knitter, Jiří Švec , Czechoslovakia a. Ünver Besergil , Turkey, a tie against János Varga , Hungary u. a loss to Wladlen Trostjanski , USSR;
• 1965, 1st place , World Championships in Tampere , GR, Ba, with victories over M. Ruch, Switzerland , Arthur Spaenhoven, Belgium , Ilhan Topsakal , Turkey a. Bernard Knitter et al. a tie against Koji Sakurama , Japan

swell

• various issues of the specialist magazine "Athletik" from the years 1954 to 1965,
• Documentation of FILA International Wrestling Championships, 1976
• International Wrestling Database of the University of Leipzig

Web links

• Profile of Ion Cernea at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Ion Cernea in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )