Moldova at the 2016 Summer Olympics

Moldova at the 2016 Summer Olympics
IOC code	MDA
NOC	National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Moldova
Website	www.olympic.md (Romanian)
in Rio de Janeiro
Competitors	23 in 8 sports
Flag bearer	Nicolae Ceban[1]
Medals Ranked 78th	Gold Silver Bronze Total 0 0 1 1
Summer Olympics appearances (overview)
1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016
Other related appearances
Russian Empire (1900–1912) Romania (1924–1936) Soviet Union (1952–1988) Unified Team (1992)

Moldova (officially the Republic of Moldova) competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's sixth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics in the post-Soviet era.

The National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Moldova fielded a squad of 23 athletes, 14 men and 9 women, across eight different sports at the Games.^[2] Although its full roster was roughly larger by a single athlete than in London four years earlier, this was still one of Moldova's smallest delegations sent to the Olympics. Among the sports represented by the nation's athletes, Moldova marked its Olympic debut in taekwondo and tennis, as well as its return to sprint canoeing after two decades.

Of the 23 participants, fifteen of them made their Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro, including flatwater canoeist Oleg Tarnovschi and his younger brother Serghei, who earned Moldova's first ever gold medal at the Youth Olympics in Nanjing two years earlier.^[3] Meanwhile, eight of them had past Olympic experience, highlighted by hammer thrower Serghei Marghiev and his older sisters Zalina Marghieva and Marina Nichișenco, shot putter Ivan Emilianov, who qualified for his fourth Games as the oldest and most experienced competitor (aged 39), taekwondo fighter Aaron Cook, who transferred his allegiance from Great Britain after controversially failing to make the London Games in 2012, and freestyle wrestler Nicolae Ceban, who reprised his role of leading the Moldovan team for the second time as the flag bearer in the opening ceremony.^[1][4]

Moldova originally left Rio de Janeiro with only a bronze medal won by the younger Tarnovschi in the men's C-1 1000 metres.^[5] On August 18, 2016, he was provisionally suspended from the Games by the International Olympic Committee and International Canoe Federation for failing a pre-competition drug test, and might stand himself to become the second athlete to be stripped of his medal should the ban upheld.^[6]

Medalists

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
03 ! Bronze	Serghei Tarnovschi	Canoeing	Men's C-1 1000 m	000000002016-08-16-0000August 16

Archery

One Moldovan archer has qualified for the women's individual recurve at the Olympics by virtue of a top six national finish at the 2016 Archery World Cup meet in Antalya, Turkey.^[7]

Athlete	Event	Ranking round		Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final / BM
		Score	Seed	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Alexandra Mirca	Women's individual	636	27	Román (MEX) W 6–4	Wu Jx (CHN) L 0–6	Did not advance

Athletics

Moldovan athletes have so far achieved qualifying standards in the following athletics events (up to a maximum of 3 athletes in each event):^[8][9]

Men

Track & road events

Field events

Women

Track & road events

Field events

Canoeing

Sprint

Moldova has qualified a single boat in men's C-1 1000 m for the Games through the 2015 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships.^[10] Meanwhile, the men's C-2 1000 m crew added their boat to the Moldovan team for the Games, as the International Canoe Federation had decided to revoke its license from Romania due to the canoeists' doping violations at the European Championships.^[11]

Athlete	Event	Heats		Semifinals		Final
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Oleg Tarnovschi	Men's C-1 200 m	40.852	2 Q	40.715	3 FB	40.280	12
Serghei Tarnovschi	Men's C-1 1000 m	4:05.193	1 FA	Bye		4:00.852	03 !

Qualification Legend: FA = Qualify to final (medal); FB = Qualify to final B (non-medal)

Judo

Moldova has qualified one judoka for the men's half-middleweight category (81 kg) at the Games. Valeriu Duminică earned a continental quota spot from the European region, as Moldova's top-ranked judoka outside of direct qualifying position in the IJF World Ranking List of May 30, 2016.^[12][13]

Athlete	Event	Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Repechage	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Valeriu Duminică	Men's −81 kg	Bye	Mrvaljević (MNE) W 002–000	Marconcini (ITA) L 010–110	Did not advance

Swimming

Moldova has received a Universality invitation from FINA to send two swimmers (one male and one female) to the Olympics.^[14][15]

Taekwondo

Moldova entered one athlete into the taekwondo competition for the first time at the Olympics. Aaron Cook, who previously competed for Team GB at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, qualified automatically for the men's welterweight category (80 kg) by finishing in the top 6 WTF Olympic rankings.^[16]

Athlete	Event	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Repechage	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Aaron Cook	Men's −80 kg	Liu W-t (TPE) L 2–14 PTG	Did not advance

Tennis

Moldova has entered one tennis player for the first time into the Olympic tournament. Due to the withdrawal of several tennis players from the Games, Radu Albot (world no. 113) received a spare ITF Olympic place to compete in the men's singles as the next highest-ranked eligible player, not yet qualified, in the ATP World Rankings as of June 6, 2016.^[17][18]

Athlete	Event	Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final / BM
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Radu Albot	Men's singles	Gabashvili (RUS) W 4–6, 6–4, 6–4	Čilić (CRO) L 3–6, 4–6	Did not advance

Weightlifting

Moldovan weightlifters have qualified four men's quota places for the Rio Olympics through the 2014 and 2015 IWF World Championships. The team must allocate these places to individual athletes by June 20, 2016.

On June 22, 2016, the International Weightlifting Federation had decided to strip of two Olympic men's entry places from Moldova because of "multiple positive cases" of doping throughout the qualifying period.^[19]

Meanwhile, an unused women's Olympic spot was awarded to the Moldovan team by IWF, as a result of Russia's complete ban from the Games due to the "multiple positive cases" of doping.^[20]

Serghei Cechir at the 2016 Olympics

Wrestling

Moldova has qualified two wrestlers for each of the following weight classes into the Olympic competition, as a result of their wrestle-off triumphs at the initial meet of the World Qualification Tournament in Ulaanbaatar.^[21]

On May 11, 2016, United World Wrestling awarded an additional Olympic license to Moldova in women's freestyle 58 kg, as a response to the doping violations on the Ukrainian wrestler at the European Qualification Tournament.^[22]

Key:

Men's freestyle

Athlete	Event	Qualification	Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Repechage 1	Repechage 2	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Evgheni Nedealco	−74 kg	Usserbayev (KAZ) L 1–4 SP	Did not advance						16
Nicolae Ceban	−97 kg	Bye	Saritov (ROU) L 1–3 PP	Did not advance					12

Women's freestyle

Athlete	Event	Qualification	Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Repechage 1	Repechage 2	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Mariana Cherdivara	−58 kg	Antes (ECU) W 3–0 PO	Malik (IND) L 1–3 PP	Did not advance					11

References