Olympic champion David Popovici qualified on Thursday for the final of the 200m freestyle event at the European Under-23 Swimming Championships in Samorin (Slovakia), with the fastest time in the heats.

Popovici, Olympic champion in the 200 m freestyle and bronze medalist in the 100 m freestyle, won his heat at the start of the European competition with a time of 1 min 46 sec 84/100, a slower time than the one at the Nationals in April (1 min 45 sec 07/100), but enough to enter the final with the best timing.

Bulgarian Petar Mitin (1 min 46 sec 99/100), German Jarno Bashnitz (1 min 47 sec 38/100), Irish Evan Bailey (1 min 47 sec 48/100), Croatian Niko Jankovic (1 min 48 sec 57/100), Swiss Antonio Djakovic (1 min 48 sec 61/100), British Charlie Hurchinson (1 min 48 sec 66/100) and German Timo Sorgius (1 min 48 sec 86/100) also qualified for the final.

The other Romanian athletes who started in the 200 m freestyle took the following places: Mihai Gergely – 34th (1 min 52 sec 31/100), Ştefan Cozma – 38th (1 min 53 sec 16/100).

The 200 m final also takes place on Thursday at 19:24 (Romanian time).

David Popovici is the leader of the Romanian delegation, which will participate with a group of 13 athletes at the European Under-23 Swimming Championships in Samorin (Slovakia), between June 26-29, a competition in which he will try to win the only medals missing from his brilliant record.

AGERPRES