2025 ROMANIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, April 9th – Sunday, April 13th
- Otopeni, Romania
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap
- Results
- Livestream
Olympic champion and former world record holder David Popovici dove in for the men’s 200m freestyle on day two of the 2025 Romanian National Championships.
Whenever the 20-year-old freestyle ace swims, the world is on notice, with tonight’s performance checking in among the globe’s best at this point in the season.
After situating himself as the top-seeded swimmer with a casual prelims swim of 1:49.58, Popivici fired off an impressive final result of 1:45.07 to grab the gold and nab a time under the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 1:46.70.
Popovici split 24.34/26.86 (51.20)/27.43/26.44 to make the swim look easy, with long strokes seemingly accelerating the dynamo through each lap.
He ultimately got to the wall over 5 seconds ahead of the competition en route to taking over the #2 slot in the world rankings. Only South Korea’s national record holder and Olympic finalist Hwang Sunwoo has been speedier with his season-best 1:45.03 from last November’s Korean National Sports Festival.
2024-2025 LCM Men 200 Free
Sunwoo
1:45.03
| 2 | David POPOVICI | ROU | 1:45.07 | 04/10 |
| 3 | MURASA TATSUYA | JPN | 1:45.67 | 03/21 |
| 4 | Sander Kiær Sørensen | NOR | 1:46.48 | 04/05 |
| 5 | Danas RAPSYS | LTU | 1:46.54 | 04/04 |
Additional Notes
- Darius Stefan Coman reaped gold in the men’s 200m breast in a time of 2:12.76, getting to the wall over 3 seconds ahead of the pack.
- Denisa Bacalu topped the women’s 50m fly podium in a time of 26.80, within striking distance of the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 26.23 needed for Singapore.
- The men’s 50m fly saw Vladstefan Mihalache clock a time of 23.53 to fall just .17 outside the ‘A’ benchmark of 23.36.
- Rebecca Diaconescu punched an outing of 1:59.53 in the women’s 200m free for gold as the sole sub-2:01 swimmer of the competition.
47.3 in prelims for chlorinedaddy
Popovici in the 100 free heats this morning đŸ˜®47.30
Maybe a sub 47 incoming in the finale đŸ‘€ ?
I think he can take it out faster based on his 50 and still mantain the back half. A 46 in season would be epic, i’m gonna say 47.1
Which day is he swimming the 100?
Day 4 (12th of April)
Saturday. He’ll also swim the 100 fly on Sunday.
About the same as he was at this meet last year 1:45.10. The 100 and 200 free are gonna be đŸ”¥ this year.
The 100 winning time may not be faster than Paris, but I think 200 winning time will be faster
While the winning time in the 100 might not be quicker we could see the first all sub 47 podium and maybe even multiple sub 1:44 đŸ‘€
I think Pop finally beats his PB this year. I don’t think a world record is on the cards this year but at least the PB. He’s won his olympic gold and is probably more relaxed and free, and maybe that’s what he needs
Skinny legend is doing just fine.
He’s not so skinny anymore. Looks like he’s spent some time in the weight room.
He is untapered nobody think anything of this, he is going to go a 1:42.76 at worlds
I’d love to see him under 1:43 again.
He will never break 1.43 again
He hasn’t had a PB in the 100/200 free since 2022, so you’d think that he needs to show some kind of improvement if he’s the phenom that people still claim that he is.
His times at Euros last year were very much noteworthy and it’s well known that he was focusing on studies in 2023.
He was very much on track last year before that pool happened.
46.40 WR
Still some doubts about this wr in that pool, but nevermind !
Hope we’ll see clearly this summer.
And no one else has been under 1:44 in the 200 free since Yannick Angel if I am not mistaken or under 1:43 since Paul Biedermann and Michael Phelps.
Bro saving that epic 200m free swim for the Euros as usual xd.