David Popovici Becomes #2 Junior All-Time in 200 FR, Breaks Romanian Record - 1:40.79 (original) (raw)
2022 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 13 to Sunday, December 18, 2022
- Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre, Melbourne, Australia
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Results:
- GOLD: Sunwoo Hwang (South Korea) – 1:39.72 (Championship Record)
- SILVER: David Popovici (Romania) – 1:40.79
- BRONZE: Tom Dean (Great Britain) – 1:40.86
- Drew Kibler (United States) – 1:41.44
- Thomas Neill (Australia) – 1:41.55
- Maxime Grousset (France) – 1:41.56
- Danas Rapsys (Lithuania) – 1:41.74
- Katsuhiro Matsumoto (Japan) – 1:41.91
In the final of the men’s 200 free, Romania’s David Popovici clocked a personal best time of 1:40.79 to set a new Romanian record, while narrowly missing **Matthew Sates**‘ World Junior Record time of 1:40.65.
Popovici picked up a silver medal in this race, touching the wall about a second behind South Korea’s Sunwoo Hwang. At the halfway point, he was trailing both Hwang and Tom Dean by a few tenths of a second, but put together the fastest back half of the field with a split of 51.67 for the final 100.
Popovici entered the meet with a 1:42.12, which was also the previous Romanian record. He swam just off that time in prelims, qualifying for finals in 6th with a 1:42.31.
Popovici is now the 8th-fastest performer of all-time in the event. Hwang moved up to be the 3rd-fastest performer of all-time, joining the exclusive sub-1:40 club.
All-Time Top 10 Performers:
- Paul Biedermann (GER) – 1:39.37 (2009)
- Yannick Agnel (FRA) – 1:39.70 (2012)
- Sunwoo Hwang (KOR) – 1:39.72 (2022)
- Danila Izotov (RUS) – 1:40.08 (2009)
- Duncan Scott (GBR) – 1:40.25 (2020)
- Townley Haas (USA) – 1:40.49 (2020)
- Matthew Sates (RSA) – 1:40.65 (2021)
- David Popovici (ROU) – 1:40.79 (2022)
- Cameron McEvoy (AUS)/Brent Hayden (CAN) – 1:40.80 (2015/2009)