Vlad Ştefan Stancu brought, on Thursday, the fifth medal for Romania at the European Swimming Championships for juniors in Otopeni. He won gold in the men’s 1,500m freestyle.
Although he entered the final with the fifth time, Vlad Stancu managed an extraordinary race that he finished in 15 min 05 sec 47/100. The second place was taken by the Polish Krzysztof Chmielewski (15 min 13 sec 46/100), while the bronze medal went to the Turkish Emir Batur Albayrak (15 min 15 sec 24/100).
Vlad Ștefan Stancu is 17 years old and works at the Steaua club. He also had a gold medal won at the 2022 Junior European Championships, with the men’s relay team 4×100 meters freestyle.
The Romanian delegation has so far won five medals at the Junior Swimming EC in Otopeni: three gold medals through the one won on Thursday by Vlad Stancu, through the men’s relay team in the 4×100 m freestyle (composed of David Popovici, Vlad Stancu, Ştefan Cozma and Patrick Sebastian Dinu) and by David Popovici in the 200 m freestyle, as well as two silver, by the mixed relay of 4×100 m freestyle (David Popovici, Patrick Sebastian Dinu, Bianca Costea and Rebecca Aimee Diaconescu) and by Bianca Costea, who on Thursday he took the silver at 50 meters free.
Bianca Costea also contributed to the Romanian treasure from swimming: she won the silver medal in the final in the 50m freestyle. The 17-year-old girl finished the pool lap in 25.34 seconds, being overtaken only by the German Nina Sandrine (25.22s).