Romanian David Popovici is the new star of the
\nworld swimming after his victory in the 200-meter freestyle race of the World Aquatics
\nChampionships in Budapest on Monday night. The Romanian ended the race in one
\nminute, 43 seconds and 21 hundredths, setting a new world record for junior
\ncontests. <\/p>\n
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Popovici, who is only 17, has thus started off
\non the right foot in world competitions with a new title won in Olympic-size
\nswimming pools. We recall that Tamara Costache also reaped gold for Romania in
\nthe 50-meter freestyle race in 1986 while Diana Mocanu became gold medalist in
\nthe 200-meter backstroke race in 2001. Romania now boasts three gold medals in
\nthese competitions, one silver and six bronze. <\/p>\n
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Popovici, who signed up with Dinamo Bucharest
\nsports club was followed by Sunwoo Hwang of South Korea and by Tom Dean of
\nBritain in the race. According to sports papers, Popovici lived up to his
\nstatus of odds-on favourite of the competition in Hungary. Popovici’s win is
\nall the more so impressive as he managed to outperform Tom Dean, Olympic
\nchampion in Tokyo, where the Romanian came only fourth. US publication Swimming
\nWorld Magazine wrote quote ‘there was a feeling that here was a talent as rare
\nand as impactful as Ian Thorpe of Michael Phelps. <\/p>\n
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According to Romanian TV channel Digi 24,
\nPopovici shot to fame in July last year in Italy after he had won the European junior
\ntitle in the 100-meter freestyle race with such a good time that brought him
\nplane tickets for Tokyo Olympics. He was also voted the youngest athlete in
\nEurope in 2021 being awarded the 2021 Piotr Nurowski ‘Best Summer European
\nYoung Athlete Prize during a ceremony held in Samorin, Slovakia at the General
\nAssembly of the European Olympic Committees. <\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Gazeta Sporturilor recalls that the time
\nPopovici ended the race in Budapest is the fourth best in the history of the
\n200-meter freestyle race. Only world-record holder Paul Biedermann and the
\nlegendary Michael Phelps and Yannick Agnel managed better scores. Popovici’s
\nwin is the best in the past decade. People at home believed in me! The medal
\nis for them the athlete said shortly after his victory. For David Popovici the
\ncontest in Budapest is only the first major competition this summer as he is to
\nalso attend the European Junior Swimming Championships in Romania next month, the
\nEuropean Championships in Rome in August and the world Junior Swimming
\nChampionships in Lima in late August and early September. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(bill)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A young Romanian swimmer walks away with gold from the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":92626,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[36954,36955,31658,35649,31331,29456,36457,116464,36542],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-92625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-36954","tag-aquatics","tag-budapest","tag-david","tag-gold","tag-medal","tag-popovici","tag-romania-en","tag-swimming"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n