Popovici’s Romanian National Championships Lineup Includes 100 Fly

  12 Retta Race | April 07th, 2025

2025 ROMANIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

  • Wednesday, April 9th – Sunday, April 13th
  • Otopeni, Romania
  • LCM (50m)
  • Meet Central

The 2025 Romanian National Championships are taking place this week, spanning Wednesday, April 9th through Sunday, April 13th in Otopeni.

Olympic gold medalist David Popovici is indeed expected to race, with the 20-year-old entered in the men’s 50m free, 100m free, 200m free and 100m fly.

Popovici’s dominance in the 100m and 200m free events is well-known.

The Romanian ranks as the 2nd-fastest man ever in the 100m free with his personal best and former world record of 46.86, sitting only behind Olympic champion Pan Zhanle of China, who blasted an other-worldly outing of 46.40 en route to gold at the 2024 Olympic Games.

As for the 200m free, Popovici ranks as the 3rd-best performer of all time, owning a career-swiftest result of 1:42.97 from the 2022 European Championships. Only reigning world record holder Paul Biedermann of Germany and American Olympic icon Michael Phelps have been faster. The former owns the WR at 1:42.00, while the latter was 1:42.96 in his prolific career.

The 50m free and 100m fly are both a bit of a wild card for Popovici, although he has solid swims on his resume in both events.

Popovici’s personal best in the 50m free checks in at the 22.16 logged for gold at the 2022 European Junior Championships. The 100m fly saw the Romanian post a time of 52.30 at the 2023 Romanian Championships.

He’ll need to drop time in both of those events to come within range of the World Aquatics ‘A’ standards of 22.05 in the 50m free and 51.77 in the 100m fly, especially in the latter race.

Earlier this year, Popovic told the press,“Even after becoming an Olympic champion, my goals haven’t changed.

“I just want to swim comfortably and as fast as I can, exceeding my limits.”

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Tripio
2 months ago

He went 21.83 PB

Mojo
Reply to  Tripio
2 months ago

And new Romanian national record.

Andre
2 months ago

Popovici 22.14 in 50 free prelims, and it’s a PB by 0.02

morning call
2 months ago

Is there a live stream? Or live results?

Troyy
Reply to  morning call
2 months ago

There’s a live stream embedded in the meet page.

Hank
2 months ago

Love to watch David race! I wish him a great season.

Tani
2 months ago

It’s fascinating how despite not being the tallest nor the most muscular of elite swimmers he’s so fast!

Joel
Reply to  Tani
2 months ago

That arm length helps!

47.84
2 months ago

Dude ain’t ever gonna be a flyer. He needs to lock in to 100/200 or maybe 200/400

BR32
Reply to  47.84
2 months ago

This isn’t an important meet, having fun is essential.

snailSpace
2 months ago

It did last year too, didn’t it? Or was it two years ago? He was a 52 something.

PBJswimming
Reply to  snailSpace
2 months ago

He went 52.30 at the 2023 Romanian Championships.It’s the Romanian NR.
https://www.worldaquatics.com/athletes/1248035/david-popovici

Last edited 2 months ago by PBJswimming