Ion Draica

Ion Draica

Ion Draica (born January 5, 1958 in Constanța , Constanța County ) is a former Romanian wrestler .

Career

Ion Draica started wrestling at the Farul Constanța sports club in his hometown of Constanța at the age of 11 . Even as a teenager and junior he was one of the best Romanian wrestlers in the Greco-Roman style of his respective age group. He owed this to his trainer Constantin Ofițerescu . After he became Romanian junior champion mi welterweight in 1976 , he was sent to the Junior European Championships in Poznan , where he finished well in 5th place. As early as the following year 1977 - at the age of almost nineteen - he was used for the first time in an international senior championship. He justified this trust, because he was sensationally European champion at the European championships in Bursa . He also defeated the Soviet favorite Anatoly Nasarenko . For this reason, the Soviets put at the World Championships of the same year Vladimir Cheboksarov in the middleweight division against Draica. Cheboksarov actually managed to defeat Draica. A victory that hung by a thread, because after both wrestlers had received two passivity warnings, Ion received the third warning seconds before the end, which brought Cheboksarov the title. Ion became vice world champion.

This was followed by two extremely successful years for Ion. First he was junior European champion, then he repeated his European championship victory of the previous year in Oslo and finally became world middleweight champion in 1978 in Mexico City . In Oslo he achieved six wins, where he had his toughest opponent in Hungary's Miklós Hegedűs , against whom he had already lost at the World Cup last year without this having had any negative effects on him. He was also lucky that Cheboksarov injured himself in the 2nd round of this tournament and had to give up. In Mexico City, Ion Draica defeated Cheboksarov and therefore deservedly became world champion.

At the European Championships in Bucharest in 1979 , Ion won his fourth title in a row. This time four victories were enough for him. At the world championship of the same year in San Diego , he could not defend his world title from the previous year. He lost in the 5th round to the new Soviet star Gennady Korban and was eliminated before reaching the finals.

Ion started the Olympic year 1980 very badly, because he only came in 6th place at the European Championships in Prievidza . Responsible for this were two double disqualifications in the fights Draica against Korban and Draica against Leif Andersson from Sweden . It turned out that Ion Draica's defensive ring style was no longer well received by the judges. That was also the reason why Ion was eliminated from the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow after the 2nd round. Again he was disqualified with his opponent for passivity.

Only after he took up a more offensive ring style from 1981 onwards did the successes come again. At the excellent student World Cup in Bucharest in 1981 , he won the title ahead of the Soviet athlete Taimuraz Abchazawa , whom he would meet more often in the next few years. Ion then also wrestled very successfully at the World Championships in Oslo in 1981 and the European Championships in Varna in 1982 , where he took 3rd place, as well as at the 1982 World Championships in Katowice and the 1983 European Championships in Budapest , where he was runner-up in each case. Taimuraz Abchazawa, who defeated Ion three times, proved to be a stumbling block at three of these events.

Ion Draica then had a successful career end at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles . With five wins he became Olympic champion . In the final he defeated the Greek Dimitrios Thanopoulis with 4: 3 points.

After these games, Ion ended his career as an active wrestler. He attended the Academy for Physical Education and Sport (ANEFS) in Bucharest and then worked as a trainer. Later he became president of the sports club "Farul" Constanța and temporarily also president of the Romanian Wrestling Federation. Finally, he made negative headlines in 2005 when he was embroiled in a corruption scandal, after receiving a high state award from the Romanian President in 2004.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, GR = Greco-Roman style, We = welterweight, Wed = middleweight, back then up to 74 kg or 92 kg body weight)

• 1976, 5th place , Junior European Championship in Posen , GR, We, behind Kolikian, USSR , Thieme, GDR , Wiesław Dziadura , Poland and Mustafa, Turkey and in front of Langacher, Switzerland ;
• 1977, 1st place , EM in Bursa , GR, Wed, with victories over Jimmy Martinetti, Switzerland , Ömer Suzan, Turkey , Anatoli Nasarenko , USSR, Istvan Nagy, Hungary , Leif Andersson , Sweden and Pawel Christow, Bulgaria ;
• 1977, 2nd place , World Cup in Göteborg , GR, Wed, with victories over Leif Andersson, Klaus Mysen , Norway , Masuhara Hanawa, Japan , Momir Petkovic , Yugoslavia , Pawel Pawlow , Bulgaria and Jan Dolgowicz , Poland and defeats against Miklós Hegedűs , Hungary and Vladimir Cheboksarov , USSR;
• 1978, 1st place , Junior European Championship in Oulu , GR, Wed, ahead of Piotr Winitschenko, USSR, Sandor Kappesz, Hungary, Sören Claesson , Sweden, Andrzej Malina , Poland and Caj Jägergaard, Denmark;
• 1978, 1st place , EM in Oslo , GR, Wed, with victories over André Bouchoule, France , Hegedűs, Mysen, Caj Jägersgaard, Denmark , Christow and Dolgowicz;
• 1978, 1st place , World Cup in Mexico City , GR, Wed, with victories over Suzan, Daniel Frometa, Canada , Dan Chandler , USA , Tscheboksarow, Kurt Spaniol , FRG and Momir Petkovic;
• 1979, 1st place , EM in Bucharest , GR, Wed, with victories over Dolgowicz, Mysen, Miroslav Janota , Czechoslovakia and Leif Andersson; in the fight between Draica and Taimuraz Abchazawa , USSR, both wrestlers were disqualified for being passive;
• 1979, 4th place , World Championship in San Diego , GR, Wed, with victories over Petkovic, Spaniol, Dolgowicz, Pawel Pawlow, Bulgaria and one defeat against Gennadi Korban , USSR;
• 1980, 1st place , Grand Prix of the FRG in Aschaffenburg , GR, Wed, ahead of Dolgowicz, Pawel Pawlow, Bulgaria, L. Slajher, Yugoslavia, Miroslav Janota and Siegfried Seibold , FRG;
• 1980, 6th place , EM in Prievidza , GR, Wed, with victories over Spaniol and Detlef Kuhn, GDR; in the fights Draica against Korban and Draica against Leif Andersson, the wrestlers were disqualified for passivity;
• 1980, 10th place , Olympic Games in Moscow , GR, Wed; Draica was disqualified along with his opponents in the fights against Jan Dolgowicz and Leif Andersson and was eliminated;
• 1981, 8th place , EM in Gothenburg , GR, Wed, with victory over Dimitrios Thanopoulos , Greece and Mysen and defeats against Mikko Huhtala , Finland and Korban;
• 1981, 1st place , Student World Cup in Bucharest , GR, Wed, ahead of Abchazawa, Evgeni Stamow, Bulgaria, Thomas Press, USA, Bogdan Merkiel, Poland and Karoly Kopas, Yugoslavia;
• 1981, 3rd place , World Championships in Oslo , GR, Wed, with victories over Ferydinn Behnampour, Iran , Georges Marx, France, Dolgowicz and Mysen and one defeat against Korban;
• 1982, 3rd place , EM in Varna , GR, Wed, behind Janimow, USSR and Andrzej Malina , Poland and in front of Petkovic, Spaniol and Jarmo Övermark , Finland;
• 1982, 2nd place , World Championships in Katowice , GR, Wed, behind Abchazawa and in front of Dolgowicz, Petkovic, Adrian Berg von Linde, Sweden and Övermark;
• 1983, 2nd place , EM in Budapest , GR, Wed, behind Abchazawa and in front of Malina, Sören Claesson , Sweden, Gyula Erdelyi, Hungary and Petkovic;
• 1983, 4th place , World Championships in Kiev , GR, Wed, behind Abchazawa, Leonard Lundell , Sweden and Övermark and in front of Malina and Seibold;
• 1984, 5th place , EM in Jönköping , GR, Wed, with victories over Ernesto Razzino, Italy , Lothar Ruch, FRG, Angel Bontschew, Bulgaria and Claesson and a defeat against Malina;
• 1984, gold medal , OS in Los Angeles , GR, Wed, with victories over Mysen, Chandler, Ashram, Egypt, Claesson and Thanopoulos

swell

• 1) Trade magazines Athletik and Der Ringer from 1975 to 1985
• 2) Website of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig

Web links

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