Daria Asaftei, Darius Coman and Denis Popescu will perform in the finals at the European Short Course Championships in Lublin

The Romanian delegation recorded a percentage of one hundred percent on Thursday evening, after all three tricolor swimmers passed the semi-finals stage at the European Short Course Championships in Lublin.

The first was Daria Asaftei, the junior of the Romanian delegation, in her first year of participation in major international competitions, who managed to qualify in a final and at the European Senior Championships in the short course, after having done so at the CE U23 in Samorin and the World Junior Championships in Otopeni.

The teenager from Iași, who is registered with Dinamo and is trained by Adrian Rădulescu and Bogdan Stroe, qualified in the final of the 200 m breaststroke with the sixth time, 2:20.14, which represents a new national record, improving the successful performance in the Thursday morning series (2:21.50).

“Ever since I was a little girl I liked the breaststroke because I felt like a frog… well, not really, but I felt like I had a certain freedom. I have also done other procedures, but now I love the breaststroke very much because I feel free and I can cut through the water”, said Daria Asaftei in the summer, in Otopeni.

Daria Asaftei in action PHOTO Roxana Fleșeru

She added then: “I still have a lot to learn on this side of the psyche, emotions and managing these feelings that come before important races. I still have a lot to work on and improve.” The women's 200m breaststroke final is scheduled for Friday evening, from 20:12.

Darius Coman, national record qualifier

Darius Coman, from Corona Brașov, trained by Gabriel Cojocaru, followed her, also qualifying for the 200 m breaststroke final with a new senior national record, with a time of 2:03.85, andand being the fifth qualified in the final on Friday night, which is scheduled at 20:19.

At the National Short Course Championships a month ago, Darius Coman said: “In Poland I'm going to try to stay as calm as possible. I'm only interested in being a better version of myself. I'm not going to set expectations, the only thing left for me is just to shoot as hard as I can.” And so he did, because the time in the semi-finals of the 200 m breaststroke is a new personal record for him, the previous mark being 2:04.46, which was then also a national record.

He trains in the short pool and that gave him confidence for the developments in Lublin. “It helps, you can feel it and it's a morale boost. This year I focused more on the breaststroke part”, he emphasized in Otopeni.

Denis Popescu defeated Thomas Ceccon

Denis Popescu joined them, managing to qualify for the 100m backstroke final. The swimmer from Olimpia Bucharest, trained by Bogdan Stroe, had the second time of his series, 49.99 s, a personal record, better than the Olympic champion of the event, Tomas Ceccon (50.07 s).

Denis qualified with the third time in Friday's final (20:06), being overtaken by the British Morgan Oliver (49.62) and the Czech Miroslav Knedla. “I feel strong in the short pool. I like to swim underwater. Always, in training, my colleagues get angry that I keep swimming underwater and they swim above it, and I recover,” said Denis Popescu last month.

Denis Popescu in action in Singapore

After a busy summer with participation in the U23 European Championships and the Senior World Championships, Denis returned to training with a new approach. “The program is different. We have a different structure for physical training, as well as for those in the water. All in all, I am much more organized, much more in tune with everything. With the passing of the years comes maturity and you get to achieve quite a lot, especially since it is not only important what you do in the water and in the gym, but also what you do outside of them”. he pointed out.

Romania has a delegation of eight swimmers in Lublin and, until now, only Denis Popescu had competed in a final, being seventh in the 50m butterfly. The objective set by the federation was to reach a final.

Friday morning, on the fourth day of the European Short Course Championships in Lublin, Darius Coman – 200 m mixed, Andrei Proca – 800 m freestyle, Patrick Dinu – 100 m freestyle and Eric Andries – 100 m freestyle will compete in the heats.