Karate

   Above: Super-Heavyweight Dorobantu Mihai wins gold, pictured with George Stanciu (left) and Amatto Zaharia (right)

By IMMAF.org lead writer, Jorden Curran

   The honour of hosting IMMAF’s 2018 European Championships presented a catalyst for this year’s host nation; the motivational boost saw Romania emerge as one of the standout successes of the international showcase, achieving a record third place finish in the senior event’s final medal table.

   In recent years, Romania had been in the shadow of its surging European counterparts. The majority of the nation’s prominence on the IMMAF competition platform had been supported by Women’s Strawweight mainstay, Raluca Dinescu, who twice battled to a European silver medal in 2015 and 2016, and World Championships bronze in 2016.