Romanian swimming star David Popovici was responsible for the most memorable performance of the European Swimming Championships in Belgrade so far.
In the final section of the third day of the European long course swimming in Belgrade, we saw the strongest performance of the Games so far. Romanian superstar David Popovici ran wild in the 100-meter freestyle with a terrible time of 46.88 and was only eight hundredths away from the world record.
– Popovici will have an absolutely shocking ride. He almost swam the world record and is only two hundredths short of his own European record. It is also the peak time in the world statistics, Urheilu’s swimming expert Ville Kallinen snorted on air.
It is the all-time triple result on this trip. Hungary scooped the silver Nandor Nemeth (47,49) and for bronze Serbia Andrei Barna (47,66) to the delight of their home crowd.
The 19-year-old Romanian is one of the hottest names in the swimming world. Two years ago, he won gold in the 100 and 200 meter freestyle at the World Championships in Budapest. In the same summer, he won European Championship gold on both trips.
Last year was difficult for Popovic, but now he is aiming for the first Olympic medals of his career in Paris.
– Last year was not the same as 2022, but with this he announced that he is serious about fighting for the Olympic gold in Paris. It came as a surprise that he was in such good shape, Kallinen retorted.