Tibi, tell us, please, about yourself.

I’m 25 years old and I live in Constanta, Romania. I have a license and a Master’s Degree in Economy and for now, I don’t have a job but I’m working on opening my own sports clothing brand.

My passions are armwrestling and snowboarding, during the winter. I also enjoy swimming and other water related sports in the summer.

How did you come to armwrestling?

I started being interested in armwrestling around 2008, because I was losing to my colleagues in high school. I first saw a video on YouTube called “How to win at armwrestling” and later found out about Ion Oncescu and the Romanian Armwrestling Association. I competed in some amateur competitions with no table experience and then in 2009 I built my own table and started training.  I learned the basics from Romanian champions Daniel Chivu and Vasile Manole.

I started refereeing in 2009 when I was doing the double elimination protocol for the local competitions that I was organizing. I then attended a referee seminar hosted by David Shead at the 2010 Romanian National Armwrestling Championship, and refereed my first competition later in 2010. I decided that I wanted to be a referee because I was not that good as a competitor and I loved armwrestling and wanted to be involved in it.

I still practice armwrestling because I am the trainer of one of the best armwrestling teams in Romania. I am not competing at the moment because I’m injured.

How many championships do you have? As for you which was the best?

As a competitor, my best results where 2^nd place in the Amateur -75 kg left arm class at the 2011 Murat Boyraz International Armwrestling Competition, held in Istanbul, Turkey and 1^st place in the Amateur -75 kg right arm class at OnlyMenStuff  2012, held in Zagreb, Croatia.

I have been refereeing at the National and European Championships since 2011 and at the World Championship since 2013. I don’t plan on missing any European Championship in the future.

I also refereed at other local, national and international events such as 2011 Murat Boyraz, 2012 Nemiroff World Cup, 2013 X-Men Paris and 2014 Sokol Maric.

Do you have some cult figure in armwrestling (sportsmen or referee)?

My first idol in armwrestling was, and still is, Ion Oncescu. I don’t have any other cult figure but I appreciated all the champions of our sport. As a referee, I was supported by Mircea Simionescu-Simicel and David Shead. I will always be grateful to them for this.

How do you like this European Championship?

I think it was OK. Of course there were some bad things and some good things, you can never make everyone happy, but overall, it was good.

You were recognized as the best referee of the championship. How do you feel? As for you, who would deserve this title too?

I am very happy to be recognized as the best this year. This has been one of my goals as a referee. I think that this year, we were a small but very efficient team, so everybody would deserve to win this title. If it was my decision, I would have picked my fellow Romanian, Victor Barbu, for doing a very good job at his first European Championship.

Which features should have a good referee? Under what conditions referee’s work can be called perfect?

In my opinion, a referee must be objective, well-tempered and able to impose his will. I like to think that my attention to details and that my knowledge of armwrestling help me see the matches in a different and better perspective.

Is armwrestling popular in Romania? What do you think about how to make armsport more popular in the world?

Armwrestling is quite popular and it’s growing in Romania because of the work of our WAF and EAF General Secretary, Mircea Simionescu-Simicel, the support of Romanian Armwrestling Association President, Mr. Cristian Dulgheru and the image of Romanian armwrestling, Ion Oncescu.

I appreciate the work of Igor Mazurenko and Assen Hadjitodorov and what they are doing is the best way of making armwrestling more popular. Bigger sponsors and more TV coverage would help.

Anastasia Kisilyova