Gold medals grabbed by David Popovici, Bianca Costea in Lima's World Junior Swimming Championships

Romanian swimmers David Popovici and Bianca Costea won gold medals on Sunday, the last day of the World Junior Swimming Championships in Lima (Peru), while Vlad Stancu won a bronze medal.

David Popovici won gold in the 100 m freestyle, timed at 47 sec 13/100, followed over two seconds later by the second ranked Croatian Jere Hribar, 49 sec 37/100, while in third place was the Cypriot Nikolas Antoniou, in 49 sec 91/100.

Patrick Sebastian Dinu took 5th place in 50 sec 09/100.

In the women's 50 m freestyle, Bianca Costea won the gold medal in 25 sec 35/100, beating Italians Sara Curtis, 25 sec 53/100, and Matilde Biagiotti, 25 sec 60/100.Vlad Stefan Stancu won the bronze medal in the 1,500 m freestyle, with a time of 15 min 17 sec 97/100, being overtaken by the Spaniard Carlos Garach Benito, 15 min 08 sec 14/100, and by the Hungarian Laszlo Galicz, 15 min 12 sec 71/100.

Romania took the 4th place in the medal standings at the Junior Worlds, with 4 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze: the gold medals were won in the men's 4x100 m freestyle championships (David Popovici, Alexandru Constantinescu, Stefan Cozma, Patrick Sebastian Dinu), through David Popovici (200 m freestyle, 100 m free) and Bianca Costea (50 m freestyle), the silver was obtained by Vlad Stancu (400 m freestyle) and by the combined 4x100 m freestyle relay (David Popovici, Patrick Sebastian Dinu, Rebecca Diaconescu, Bianca Costea), and the bronze was brought by Vlad Stancu (800 m freestyle and 1,500 m freestyle).

Romania ended in force a remarkable summer for its swimming, with two gold medals at the Senior Worlds in Budapest, both won by David Popovici (100 m freestyle, 200 m freestyle), two gold medals at the Senior European Championships in Rome, both obtained by David Popovici (100 m freestyle and 200 m freestyle), and nine medals at the Junior European Championships in Otopeni, five gold and four silver - gold by David Popovici (50 m freestyle, 100 m freestyle, 200 m freestyle), Vlad Stancu (1,500 m freestyle) and men's 4x100 m freestyle (David Popovici, Vlad Stancu, Stefan Cozma, Patrick Dinu), silver by Vlad Stancu (400 m freestyle, 800 m freestyle), Bianca Costea (50 m freestyle) and combined relay 4x100 m freestyle (David Popovici, Patrick Dinu, Bianca Costea, Rebecca Diaconescu, Stefan Cozma, Anastasia Bako, Irina Preda).

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