| In Memory of Adriana Giurca |
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| Romanian newspaper version This article is told by Adriana's father Emil and translated and adapted by Nicole Citroen 8 YEARS PRISON FOR GYMNASTICS COACH FLORIN GHEORGHE Gymnastics coach Florin Gheorghe (25) was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment for causing the death of one of his pupils, Adriana Giurca, who was just 11 years old and a very promising gymnast. The is the story told by Adriana’s father, Emil, of the events that happened on that tragic day. “Our daughter, Adriana Emilia Giurca, had been participating in competitive gymnastics at the club ‘Dinamo’ in Bucharest and it all ended very abruptly on the 6th of November 1993. She was supposed to compete at the junior championships on the 11th of November. On the 6th, around 9.40, I, Adriana’s father, drove my daughter to the hall where she had a training-session at Dinamo. I told her I would be back at 2 because there was going to be a meeting with all the parents to discuss what time we would leave for Onesti, where the competition would be held. At around 1 ‘o clock, as I approached the hall, Florin Gheorghe came rushing out, asking me if I came by car because Adriana had ‘fallen’ hard and she hadn’t come to again. I went into the building, where I saw the other girls, who had witnessed the ‘fall’, sitting on the mat crying, but my little girl was on the first floor, in the dressing-room in a coma, while trainer Elena Boboc was trying to reanimate her. I called out to her, but the trainer told me to calm down because she wasn’t able to hear me. In my own car, on a piece of plywood, and with the help of a medical assistant from the club Dinamo and the coach, I took Adriana to the emergency room where I was told that her situation was very serious. She was taken into the intensive care, as she was comatized in a 4th degree, with a spinal injury among other injuries. On the 8th of November 1993, around 6 in the morning she passed away. When I asked the coach what had happened, he told me that Adriana ‘fell’ on her back during her floor routine, she spoke a few words for 20 seconds and then she fainted. On the 8th, after she died, I went to the prosecutor’s office and took the medical information gathered by the hospital and I reported the incident to him and after that I visited the medico-legal institute. On the 9th of November, at around 18.00, I received a phone call from the coach, who asked me if I could meet him in front of my apartment building around 20.00. He came, together with his brother, confessing that he hadn’t told me the truth about what had happened and that he was guilty of Adriana’s death. As Adriana had refused to perform her floor routine again, he had grabbed her and had thrown her on the floor violently and she went into a coma immediately. About 2 weeks after her death, I went to the prosecutor’s office to enquire about the situation and they told me that on the 8th of November, there wasn’t any case filed about Adriana Giurac, so I gave them the file number. After a lot of searching, the file was found at the cities procurator’s office between traffic accidents!! And I was told that it would be send to the procurator’s office as soon as possible with the necessary indications. It took a while before the investigation was on it’s way and all kinds of accusations were made, even that Adriana took medication prior to the training and wasn’t allowed to do gymnastics that day. A medical research however proved that the tests were negative.” Florin Gheorghe was arrested and prosecutor Gheorghe Zamfir said that the case wouldn’t raise any problems at all. “It’s clear that the death of Adriana was caused by an act of violence. I’m very sorry for the parents of the child and also because I had heard how much potential their daughter had to become a great gymnast.” |
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| Adriana posing with her teammates at Dinamo Bucharest. top:l-r:Adriana Giurca,?,?,?,?,? bottom:l-r:??,Andreea Taclit,?,? .On the background you can see Florin Gheorghe t |
| Eric Matson version ""It is even sadder that Adriana's memory is being so tarnished by the fraudulent prosecution of her coach - who is not only an innocent man but a good man. I know this because I met him. These events prompted me to write a screenplay to expose the truth of this case. Although my website is primarily about my film project, it also contains a detailed essay on the "case" against Mr. Gheorghe. You will also find photos of the gymnasts."" |
| On this page you can read 2 different versions about what happened to Adriana Giurca. Version 1 :is the version of American journalist Eric Matson.He investiged Adriana's death and made a page about it.I recommend visiting his site here Version 2: Is from the romanian newspapers. Read both versions and decide for yourself! |