2021 EUROPEAN JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, July 6th – Sunday, July 11th
- Foro Italico, Rome, Italy
- Heats at 9:30am local (3:30am EST)/Finals at 6pm local (Noon EST)
- LCM (50m)
- Live Results
- Live Stream
- Day 1 Prelims Recap | Day 1 Finals Recap
Romania’s David Popovici turned the swimming community on its axis on Tuesday, breaking the world junior record in the men’s 100 freestyle at just 16 years of age.
Popovici led off Romanian men’s 4×100 free relay on the opening night of finals at the European Junior Championships in Rome in a time of 47.56, putting him under the previous WJR of 47.57 set by Andrei Minakov in 2020.
Popovici finished 2.51 seconds clear of the next-fastest swimmer on the opening leg of the relay, and only two other swimmers that had the advantage of a relay exchange split under 49 seconds.
The Bucharest native, who now ranks fourth in the world for 2020-21, was out in a quick 23.07 but turned in an unbelievable back-half: 24.49.
Watch the race video via Best Swimming on YouTube below:
You can also watch the full 400 free relay on the LEN website here, though you’ll need to make an account (free) with Eurovision OTT.
Popovici followed up this performance by tying what is now his previous best time and Romanian Record of 48.08 in the individual semi-finals, putting him 1.26 seconds clear of the next-fastest competitor heading into Thursday’s final.
Now a bonafide contender in this event at the upcoming Olympic Games, Popovici, who will turn 17 in September, would become the youngest medalist in the 100 freestyle since 1932 if he pulled off a top-three finish in Tokyo.
That was dirty.
so what place did the relay get? what was the relay time?
3:19.93 silver, lost by 0.27 to russia
Which is a fantastic result for Romania who never did win any relay medal at Europeans.
AH-MA-ZING
Ads are turned off on the Fike swimsuit post but I just want to say I’ve never been as excited about a black suit in my life.
Looks like Alex popov
Yes very relaxed recovery and great distance per stroke very much like Popov. Not Sun Yang who is a little stiffer more classic recovery and a bit of a catch up like other great distance swimmers.
It looks like he is just blasting ahead…awesome swimmer…will have a great shot at a medal.
He might’ve peaked out. Will just have to wait and see. Probably just a flash in the pan.
Could be, noone knows. Personally i think that he should be able to improve just by getting stronger (he actually looks like a junior, compared to other teen phenoms in the past). I am also interested to see what he can do in the 400 free if he ever tries it. I also think that those male teen phenoms who peak early, usually peak around 18 or so (so Popovici has 2 more years) and more often we see it in distance events.
Ok, so 47.5 has won gold at the last 2 Olympics… I’m not sure it will take much more to win. The men’s 100 free final is a pressure cooker and I think at least as many people add time as do drop in that heat.
I realize Kyle and Remel are slated to put on a show, but I think if he just repeated this time (not even thinking about him dropping, which seems very possible) he could be in medal territory.
Curious about anyone else’s thoughts?
I just like how you refer to him as Remel
I have high hopes for a big time from Dressel just because he’s the only one who can get out of the wash immediately and stay in front.
No chance, and may not make finals with that time
I don’t think he drops in Tokyo. He had clean water here, he’ll have to swim against some wake, and he’ll have been tapered for over a month.
To your point, he went 48.0 in the final.
Hey Coleman!
My hot take …
I think it’s distinctly plausible that it’s not as fast Gwangju. At this stage (and I imagine this won’t be popular) but if you offered any of the major contenders 47.10 in the final – I suspect they’d bite your hand off.
All the same, I think it will take more than 47.5 to win. The field is just too deep. It’s very difficult to see all of Dressel, Miressi, Kolesnikov, Chalmers, Popovici etc. choking and underperforming. One of them (and if it’s ‘slow’ I’d fancy Chalmers) will go 47.3. Popovici however could conceivably drop more time – he’s only really point 2 or point 3 from going from … ‘might have a… Read more »
The 100 free winner is usually just the guy who is fastest on that day and it could be any of a number of guys like the top 5-6 guys. So yeah its conceivable that a 47.3 wins it and a 47.6 takes bronze. I do think Dressel has an advantage with his strength being his front half.
I think 47.3 will win, and I think 100 times we’re looking at from this meet and the trials meets will be difficult to replicate in an Olympic final field. I think we will definitely be in gold medal contention if he can get out just a bit faster and not find himself in the wash off the turn
I don’t think we ever had that many guys around 47.5 or faster before the olympics, so i definitely think that it will take at least 47 low to win gold, but something like 47.3 could probably medal. Not sure if the pressure will have more influence than at 2019 worlds for example, where Dressel and Chalmers didn’t seem “nervous” in the final.