Denis Popescu, 7th place in the 50 m butterfly final of the European Short Course Championships

Denis Popescu, the only finalist so far of the Romanian delegation at the European Short Course Championships in Lublin, ranked seventh in the 50 m butterfly. The 22-year-old swimmer completed the two lengths of the pool in 22.43 s.

The podium was occupied by the Swiss Noe Ponti (21.54 s), the defending champion of the event, the Hungarian Szebasztian Szabo (21.89 s) and the French Maxime Grousset (21.99 s). On Tuesday morning, in the evening, Denis Popescu achieved a new national record in this event, with a time of 22.19 s. He corrected a mark he had set last month at the national competition in Otopeni.

Denis Popescu will participate in two more events at the European competition, 50 and 100 m backstroke.

Every ripple, every arm is important and calculated in short pool trials. Returns are the most important, they make the difference between a good athlete and a very good one. In my opinion, short pool swimming is a different sport from normal pool swimming. For the most part, they are two totally different sports – Denis Popescu

Andries, Dinu and Proca stopped in the series

On Wednesday morning, in the heats, Eric Andrieț and Patrick Dinu competed in the 200 m freestyle, where there were strong battles for qualification to the semi-finals. So strong was the race that the reigning European champion, Matt Richards, who had the third time (1:41.79), but because he was overtaken by two compatriots, McMillan (1:41.41) and Scott (1:41.56), stopped in the heats.

The Romanians ranked 32nd with 1:44.04, respectively 35th with 1:44.42, performances that did not take them to the semifinals. Andrei Proca also stopped in the heats, in the 1500 m freestyle, ranking 12th with 14:37.51, only the first eight advancing to the final.

Romania has a delegation of eight swimmers in Lublin. On Thursday, on the third day of the European Short Course Championships, Daria Asaftei will compete in the 200 m breaststroke, Darius Coman in the 200 m breaststroke, Denis Popescu and Tudor Iordache in the 100 m backstroke.

The Romanian delegation to the European Short Course Championships from LublinFEMININ

• Daria Asaftei (16 years old) – 50 m breaststroke, 100 m breaststroke, 200 m breaststroke

• MALE

• Eric Andries (18 years old) – 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle

• Darius Coman (18 years old) – 200 m breaststroke, 200 m medley, 400 m medley

• Patrick Dinu (20 years old) – 50 m free, 100 m free, 200 m free

• Tudor Iordache (17 years old) – 50 m back, 100 m back, 200 m back

• Denis Popescu (22 years old) – 50 m backstroke, 100 m backstroke, 50 m butterfly

• Andrei Proca (18 years old) – 400 m free, 800 m free, 1500 m free

• Danis Volontir (18 years old) – 50 m breaststroke, 100 m breaststroke

The previous edition of the CE in the short course took place in Otopeni, and Romania was represented by 21 swimmers, David Popovici and Andrei Ungur managing to climb the third step of the podium in the 100 m freestyle and 100 m backstroke, respectively.

In the history of Romania's participation in this competition, fifteen medals have been collected, the only gold one being won by David Popovici in 2021, in Kazan, in the 200 m freestyle.