Sports flash
The latest from swimming
Eugen Nasta, 20.06.2024, 13:45
Romanian swimmer David Popovici walked away with gold this past Wednesday in the 100m freestyle event. as part of the European Swimming Championships in Belgrade. Popovici clocked 46 seconds and 88 hundredths of a second, a mere two minutes away from the record he set in Rome, in 2022.
We recall Popovici’s performance back then was also a new world record China’s Pan Zhanle broke in February 2024.
In Belgrade, David Popovici was followed suit by Hungary’s Nandor Németh, who clocked 47 seconds and 49 hundredths of a second. Stepping onto the third step of the podium was Serbian swimmer Andrej Barna, who finished the race 17 hundredths of a second later than Nemeth. After the result in the Serbian capital, David Popovici has reconfirmed his Olympic medal hopeful status, in the 100m freestyle event.
This coming weekend will reveal if David Popovici is still in full command of the other event where he is the defending European champion, the 200m freestyle. In 2022 in Rome, Popovici set a new juniors’ European and world record. Back then David clocked one minute, 42 seconds and 97 hundredths of a second. He was less than a second away, actually 97 hundredths of a second, from the world record set by Germany’s Paul Biedermann in 2009.
In 2024, as part of the Mare Nostrum contest in Barcelona, in the 200m race, David clocked one minute, 44 seconds and 74 hundredths of a second. In the final, Popovici outperformed the event’s world champion, South-Korean Sun-woo Hwang, finishing the race nearly one second earlier.
The Romanian swimmers’ performance in the European Championships in Belgrade have been unassuming for the other events they competed in.
In the women’s 200m backstroke final on Tuesday, Aissia-Claudia Prisecariu came in 7th. Also 7th came Denis Laurean Popescu in the 50m butterfly final. On Wednesday in the 10-meter platform dive final, Ioana-Andreea Cârcu came in 11th.
In the swimming contest, Denis -Laurean Popescu has wasted the opportunity to qualify to the 100m butterfly final.
