Popovici set a new European record of 46.71, which also stands as the fastest time in the world this year; he was followed by Croatians Jere Hribar – 48.33, and Toni Dragoja – 48.67.
Patrick-Sebastian Dinu finished seventh, timing in at 48.87.
In the men’s 50m butterfly, Denis-Laurean Popescu earned the bronze medal with 23.43. The gold went to Portugal’s Diogo Ribeiro – 23:01, and Ukraine’s Vladislav Buhov claimed the silver with 23.09.
In the same event, Vlad-Stefan Mihalache ranked 7th, with 23.74 seconds.
In the women’s 1500m freestyle race, Rebecca-Aimee Diaconescu clocked in fourth at 16:33.55. Greek Artemis Vasilaki won the event (16:22.20), Poland’s Klaudia Tarasiewicz finished second (16:26.58), and German Marian Ploger (16:32.40) was third on the podium.
In the 4x100m mixed freestyle relay, Romania’s team (Patrick-Sebastian Dinu, Alexandru Constantinescu, Maysa Ratiu, Rebecca-Aimee Diaconescu) took 7th place with 3:33.53.
The European title went to Hungary – whose team completed the swim in 3:27.13, followed by Germany (3:27.16) and Great Britain (3:27.93).
In the medal standings, Romania ranked sixth with three gold and two bronze. Poland is on top (5-4-2), followed by Germany (5-2-1) and Hungary (4-1-5)
At the European Aquatics U23 Swimming Championships in Samorin (Slovakia) Romania had a line-up of 13 athletes.
