David Popovici is dyed gold again at the European Swimming Championships in Rome. After his performance in the 100m freestyle final, in which he clinched victory and also set a new world record, the 17-year-old Romanian swimmer swept the 200m final again this Monday. The very young new king of swimming has stopped the clock in 1 minute and 42.97 seconds, a new junior world record, just a hundredth of the second best mark ever owned by American Michael Phelps. Popovici hung the gold in the 100m and 200m, just as he did at the World Championships held in Budapest for just over a month, achieving a double previously only achieved by American Jim Montgomery in 1973.
Despite his triumph, Popovici has not been enthusiastic about his recent victory. The reason is that the Romanian Paul Biedermann had between his eyebrows and his record of 1 minute and 42 seconds, which he could not achieve despite his great performance. The German record holder set the best 200m record in Rome in 2009, in the very pool where Popovici tried to beat him this Monday, falling less than a second behind.
David Popovici is doing it AGAIN‼️ #Bathe
What a race by David Popovici 🇷🇴! He broke the junior world record and another championship record in the men’s 200m freestyle in 1:42.97 pic.twitter.com/5KNiunDs87
— FINA (@fina1908) August 15, 2022
From the first strokes Popovici already took the lead in the race and the rivals struggled to follow the Romanian torpedo. From the second 100 m, where he swam at a record pace, the Romanian began to pull harder and increase the distance to his pursuers. In the end he couldn’t catch the German record holder but finished almost three seconds behind his closest pursuer, the Swiss Djakovic (1m45.60s), showing that he currently has no competitor in the pools. The Romanian also improved his personal best by almost three tenths, which he set at the Budapest World Championships on June 20 with a time of 1m 43.21s, the former best world record in the junior category.
Popovici continues to defy the boundaries of time and logic. After winning the European title on Saturday in the king’s distance of swimming, the 100 meters, beating the world record of the Brazilian César Cielo in the combination with 46.86, the Romanian will aim for a historic triplets with his last final in the 400 meters freestyle, the he contests this Wednesday.
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