Romanian swimmer David Popovici—an Olympic, world, and European champion—qualified for the 200m freestyle final on Thursday evening at the European Swimming Championships in Paris, clocking the fastest time in the semifinals: 1:44.56.

Germany's Lukas Martens clocked the second-fastest time—1:44.79—while the third-fastest time went to Britain's James Guy—1:45.14.

Popovici, the gold medalist in the 100m freestyle at the European Championships in Paris, had clocked only the fourth-fastest time in Thursday morning's heats—1 minute 46.06 seconds.

The final will take place on Friday at 19:36 Romanian time. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Mihai Tenea;EN - writing by: Catalin Cristian Trandafir)

Display count: 1705