Romania’s David Popovici, already 100m freestyle champion here, moved through to tonight’s men’s 200m freestyle semi-finals with the ease of a basking shark as he lines up his third consecutive European double.
On day four of the European Aquatics Championships swimming programme at the Olympic Aquatic Centre the 21-year-old world and Olympic champion qualified fourth fastest in 1:46.06.
Austria’s 18-year-old Christian Giefing, the European junior 400m freestyle bronze medallist, finished fastest in 1:44.96, with Great Britain’s James Guy – who already has a gold here from the opening night’s men’s 4x200m freestyle – next on 1:45.40.
To voluble home appreciation France’s 16-year-old home swimmer Sauveur Cristofini, who earned silver in that epic men’s 4x200m freestyle, qualified third fastest in 1:45.93.
Another of Great Britain’s relay winners, Jack McMillan, qualified eighth in 1:46.36.
That meant no progression into the last 16 for Tokyo 2020 men’s 200m freestyle gold medallist Tom Dean, a member of the relay team which won at the last two Olympics, who placed 12th in 1:46.48 by reason of the rule limiting each nation to two qualifiers.
Great Britain’s Angharad Evans, winner of the previous night’s women’s 100m breaststroke title with a third consecutive Championship record, topped qualifying in the women’s 200m breaststroke, clocking 2:22.66, with Ireland’s Mona McSharry, silver medallist in the 100m, finishing alongside her as second fastest in 2:23.37.
Belgium’s 21-year-old Roos Vanotterdijk topped heats qualifying in the women’s 50m butterfly – in which she won world silver last year – as she clocked 56.76, with Germany’s 2024 world champion Angelina Kohler just 0.01 slower.
Czechia’s Barbora Seemanova, who will defend her women’s 200m freestyle title tonight, was next fastest on 57.43.
There was much appreciation for home swimmer Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, Paris 2024 men’s 4x100m medley bronze medallist and world 100m backstroke bronze medallist, who had failed to progress from the men’s 200m backstroke heats because of the two nations rule despite finishing fifth fastest.
He made it through to tonight’s semi-finals in 11th place on 24.65 in a list topped by NAB’s Kliment Kolesnikov and Pavel Samusenko on 24.12 and 24.13 respectively
Neutral Athletes B also prospered in the men’s 4x100m freestyle heats, producing the fastest time of 3:12.21 ahead of tonight’s final, with Great Britain second fastest in 3:12.80 and Croatia next on 3:13.06.
Italy’s Simona Quadarella, already women’s 800m freestyle champion, will challenge for the double tomorrow night after heading the women’s 1500m heats with a time of 16.05.28.
NAB’s Kseniia Misharina was second fastest in 16:08.71, followed by Germany’s Isabel Gose, 800m silver medallist and double gold medallist in open water swimming here, who clocked 16:10.51.
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Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
