Valer Toma

Valer Toma in the 1980s

Valeriu "Valer" Toma (born November 26, 1957 in Padina , Buzau County ) is a former Romanian rower and Olympic champion.

At the 1980 Olympic Games, Valer Toma, together with Constantin Postoiu, took fourth place in a double without a helmsman , two seconds behind bronze. After a seventh place in two at the 1981 World Championships , Valer Toma switched to the four without a helmsman in 1982 . At the 1982 World Championships , Petru Iosub , Valer Toma, Daniel Voiculescu and Constantin Airoaie won the bronze medal behind the Swiss and the Soviet foursome. With the same line-up, the Romanians won the B-final at the 1983 World Championships and finished seventh overall.

For the 1984 Olympic Games , Iosub and Toma switched to the two without a helmsman . In this boat class, the Olympic boycott of the Eastern Bloc countries did not have such a clear impact , as the 1982 world champions and bronze medalists from Norway in 1983, Hans Magnus Grepperud and Sverre Løken, and the 1982 world championship third from the Netherlands competed. Iosub and Toma finished second behind the Norwegians in the second heat; in the semi-finals the Norwegians and the Romanians won their race, while the Dutch could not qualify for the A-final. The final then developed into a three-way battle between Norwegians, Romanians and the Spanish two-man. Ultimately, the Romanians won with a three-second lead over the Spaniards, with the Norwegians three seconds behind them in third.

The 1.91 m tall Petru Iosub and 1.87 m tall Valer Toma finished tenth and 1986 eighth at the 1985 World Championships . Then the international career of the two Olympic champions ended.

Web links

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