Ionelia Zaharia

Ionelia Zaharia
Full name	Ionelia Zaharia
nation	Romania
birthday	August 13, 1985
place of birth	Răcari ,  Romania
size	176 cm
Weight	67 kg
Career
discipline	rowing
society	Triumf CSS
status	active
Medal table
Rowing World Championships 0 × 2 × 1 × European Rowing Championships 4 × 1 × 2 ×
World championships silver 2013 Chungju Eighth bronze 2010 Hamilton Eighth silver 2009 Poznan Eighth  U23 world championships gold 2006 Hazewinkel Double fours gold 2005 Amsterdam Double fours silver 2004 Poznan Double fours  Junior World Championships gold 2003 Athens Double fours gold 2002 Trakai Eighth  European championships gold 2013 Seville Eighth bronze 2012 Varese Double fours gold 2011 Plovdiv Eighth gold 2010 Montemor-o-Velho Eighth gold 2009 Brest Eighth bronze 2008 Athens Double fours silver 2007 Poznan Double fours
Last change: November 6, 2014

Ionelia Zaharia (born August 13, 1985 in Răcari , Romania ; birth name Ionelia Neacșu ) is a Romanian rower . She is a four-time European champion and was an Olympian for Romania.

Career

Zaharia began rowing in 1999 and was able to collect her first international successes relatively quickly under her maiden name Neacșu. In two participations in the world championships of the juniors she reached a gold medal each in the eighth (2002) and in the double fours (2003). She then rowed for two years in the U23 area, but from 2005 onwards she was also able to compete in the open quadruple sculls at the World Championships and place 7th. She won her first silver medal in this boat class at the newly introduced European Rowing Championships in 2007 . In the 2008 Olympic season, she also initially rowed in double fours at the European Championships, where she won a bronze medal. Then she switched to the smaller double scull and took part in this boat class together with Roxana Cogianu at the Summer Olympics in Beijing . The team reached a 10th place.

Together with Roxana Cogianu, Zaharia became a regular in the successful Romanian women's eight from 2009. From 2009 to 2011 she was able to win the European title in this boat class every year, plus a silver and a bronze medal at the rowing world championships in 2009 and 2010. For the 2012 Olympic season, however, Zaharia missed the leap into eighth place that she did not participate in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. At the European Rowing Championships in 2012 , however, she achieved success by winning the bronze medal in the quadruple sculls. In the post-Olympic year 2013, she rowed again in eighth and again won the European championships and the silver medal at the world championships.

Zaharia starts for the Triumf CSS association . At a height of 1.76 m, her competition weight is around 67 kg.

Web links

• Ionelia Zaharia at Worldrowing.com ( FISA database )
• Ionelia Zaharia in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )