What did the Romanian swimmers do in the finals on the fourth day of the European Short Course Championships in Lublin
Article by Roxana Fleşeru – Published Friday, 05 December 2025 21:15 / Updated Friday, 05 December 2025 22:03
Daria Asaftei (16 years old), Darius Coman (18 years old) and Denis Popescu (22 years old) performed on Friday evening in the finals of the women's and men's 200 m breaststroke, respectively 100 m backstroke, placing sixth, fifth and sixth respectively.
Three Romanian swimmers were involved in the finals on the fourth day of the European Short Course Championships in Lublin.
The first to enter the competition was Denis Popescu in the 100 m backstroke. Qualified with the third time and assigned to the third lane, Denis was third after 25 meters, first at 50 meters and third at 75 meters, but finished sixth.
His time of 49.97 is a personal best in this event. Italian Thomas Ceccon (49.29), French Mawen Tomac (49.46) and British Oliver Morgan (49.68) climbed the podium.
Before the Romanian, Miroslav Knedla (49.93) and Italian Lorenzo Mora (49.95) also touched the wall. Denis swam in his second final in Lublin, after the 50m butterfly, where he placed seventh.
Daria Asaftei tied with a swimmer from Denmark
Daria Asaftei was the second representative of Romania who performed on Friday evening in Lublin. The 16-year-old swimmer, in her first year of major international competition, placed sixth with a time of 2:20.62. In the semifinals, she had set a new national record in this event (2:20.14).
The Romanian was tied with the Danish Clara Rybak-Andersen (2:20.62), and the German Anna Elendt (2:18.16), the British Angharad Evans (2:18.90) and the Lithuanian Kotryna Teterevkova (2:19.30) climbed the podium.
Darus Coman, a new national record
In the men's 200m breaststroke, Romania had Darius Coman, who placed fifth with a time of 2:03.17, a new senior national record, bettering his semi-final performance of 2:03.85.
He was sixth after 25 metres, in the same place midway through the race, fourth at the final turn and fifth at its finish. The 18-year-old Romanian was overtaken by Carles Coll Marti (2:00.86), Caspar Corbeau (2:01.27), Luka Mladenovic (2:02.48) and Filip Nowacki (2:02.96).
On Friday morning, Darius Coman did not appear in the heats of the 200 m mixed event, Andrei Proca stopped in the heats of the 800 m freestyle, setting a new national record with the time of 7:39.62, as did Eric Andries in the 100 m freestyle.
Patrick Dinu advanced to the semi-finals in the 100 m free with the sixth time, 46.46., and on Friday evening he stopped in the semi-finals with the time of 46.36 s, being the eleventh, only the first eight advancing in the last act.
On Saturday morning, on the penultimate day of the European Short Course Championships, Denis Popescu and Tudor Iordache – 50m backstroke, Daria Asaftei – 50m breaststroke, Danis Volontir – 50m breaststroke and Patrick Dinu – 50m freestyle will enter the heats.
Romania sent a delegation of eight swimmers to Lublin, aiming to reach a final.
