Ion Panțuru
 Panțuru in 1973 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 11 September 1934 Comarnic, Romania | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 17 January 2016 (aged 81) Ploiești, Romania | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 172 cm (5 ft 8 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 77 kg (170 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Bobsleigh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Bobclub Sinaia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Ion Panţuru (11 September 1934 – 17 January 2016) was a Romanian bobsledder. He competed in two-man and four-man events at the 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976 Olympics and served as the Olympic flag bearer for Romania in 1964 and 1972.[1]
Panţuru took up bobsleigh at the age of 24, after playing as a football goalkeeper at the Divizia B-level.[2] At the 1968 Games he won a bronze medal with brakeman Nicolae Neagoe, which remains Romania's only medal at the Winter Olympics. At the same Olympics he was also close to a bronze medal in the four-man competition, placing fourth. At the FIBT World Championships he won two medals in the two-man event, together with another brakeman Dumitru Focșeneanu, with a silver in 1969 and a bronze in 1973. At the European championships Panţuru won four-man gold medals in 1967 and 1971, placing second in four-man in 1968–69 and in two-man events in 1967 and 1969; he also won a four-man bronze medal in 1970.[3]
Panţuru lost his 1969 World Championships medal in a car on his way to the airport. The medal was found in a basement 30 years later, and returned to Panțuru. After retiring from competitions he worked as a national bobsleigh coach.[3] For his sports achievements he was made an honorary citizen of three Romanian towns: Comarnic, Sinaia and Busteni.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Romania". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 16 September 2011.
- ^ a b "Ion Panţuru, eroul bobului romanesc". sportrevolution.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 28 May 2014.
- ^ a b Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Ion Panțuru". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 16 September 2011.
External links
[edit]
- 1972 bobsleigh four-man results
- Bobsleigh two-man Olympic medalists 1932–56 and since 1964 Archived 10 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- Bobsleigh two-man world championship medalists since 1931
- DatabaseOlympics.com profile
- Ion Panțuru at Olympedia (archive)
- Ion Panțuru at Olympics.com
- Ion Panțuru at the Comitetul Olimpic și Sportiv Român (in Romanian) (archive)
  | This biographical article relating to bobsleigh in Romania is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- 1934 births
- 2016 deaths
- People from Comarnic
- Romanian male bobsledders
- Olympic bobsledders for Romania
- Bobsledders at the 1964 Winter Olympics
- Bobsledders at the 1968 Winter Olympics
- Bobsledders at the 1972 Winter Olympics
- Bobsledders at the 1976 Winter Olympics
- Olympic bronze medalists for Romania
- Olympic medalists in bobsleigh
- Medalists at the 1968 Winter Olympics
- Sportspeople from Prahova County
- 20th-century Romanian sportsmen
- Romanian bobsleigh biography stubs