David Popovici Swims Second-Fastest Time Ever in 100 Free

World Championships, Day 5 Finals: David Popovici Swims Second-Fastest Time Ever in 100 Free, Secures Gold-Medal Double

The closing velocity that each different swimmer fears, the tenacity to be at his greatest within the greatest moments. These attributes that made David Popovici so particular when he received world titles and broke a world document at age 17, and he has each ounce of that magic again this 12 months in Singapore.

Now 20, Popovici had already blasted forward of the sphere to safe the world title within the 200 freestyle, and now he has overcome a sensational discipline to take gold within the 100 freestyle, pulling away from the sphere to swim the second-fastest time in historical past.

Popovici has by no means been the speediest swimmer in huge finals of the 100 free, and this discipline had impartial athlete Egor Kornev and Brazil’s Gui Caribe setting the tempo. Popovici sat in fourth place on the midway level, shut sufficient to activate the jets coming dwelling. Popovici had American Jack Alexy and Australian Kyle Chalmers on both aspect of him ending properly, however nobody would break up inside 4 tenths of the Romanian on the second size.

“In a few words, I am really happy to be here. It is as simple as that,” Popovici mentioned. “With regards to the race, I think the one who wins is the one who can detach themselves from their competitors. So I managed to build walls between each of my lanes and imagined I was swimming alone.”

Popovici’s closing time was 46.51, breaking his European document of 46.71 set final month by two tenths and ending simply 0.11 of the world document of 46.40 set by Pan Zhanle within the Olympic closing final 12 months. Alexy took silver in 46.92 whereas Chalmers got here in at 47.17 for bronze.

Popovici’s homecoming break up of 24.02 was the second-best ever recorded, simply off the 23.98 break up he posted on the European U23 Championships final month. More importantly, the result’s a far cry from what happened in Paris, the place Popovici completed greater than a second behind the winner. This end result, then again, is one Popovici thought of practically good.

“I improved my underwater the most from last year and what I did differently in the 200 and the 100 especially was the length of the stroke. These are boring, nerdy facts for swimmers, but for me it works,” Popovici mentioned. “Tonight was a 10 out of 10. I’m not one to say that. You never have a 10, but I think today was a 10 out of 10. I’ll enjoy that and I’ll celebrate the party.”

Alexy earned silver in 46.92, matching his end result from the World Championships two years in the past in Fukuoka, and developing simply wanting the American document of 46.81 he set within the semifinals. The time Wednesday made Alexy the fourth-fastest performer in historical past, and this newest effort has solely been crushed by Pan, Popovici and Cesar Cielo, the Brazilian who held a supersuit-aided world document till Popovici broke it in 2022.

“I was talking to David in the ready room there. He just told us to put on a show,” Alexy instructed NBC Sports in a post-race interview. ” It got here right down to the final 25 there, and I’m actually proud of how I dealt with myself below stress, how I moved my method from prelims to semifinals to finals. It was nice going 46 once more, so I’m actually proud of that swim.”

While Alexy was unable to contend for a medal in Paris, he has now change into one of many world’s most constant 100 freestyle performers with the aforementioned silver plus the brief course world title he received final December. Alexy is now an skilled worldwide performer, and he has efficiently utilized classes realized on that stage to have the ability to carry out in vital finals.

“Last year, I only had the Fukuoka Worlds to build on. I learned a lot of things there. Paris was an insane experience. I had some great successes on some relays. Didn’t quite have great individual performances. Just building on that. Learning from things that need to change, things that need to remain the same,” Alexy mentioned on the NBC broadcast.

“A lot this year was mentally approaching practice with the attitude of it would be great to have some success in the water, go some great times, but it’s not the end of the world if I don’t. I think having some balance in life has really helped me a lot. I’m really proud of myself of coming in here after some inconsistency in the past few weeks with health and training, and I’m really just excited for the rest of the week.”

No lively swimmer has the 100 freestyle résumé of Chalmers, who received has now reached the rostrum in each main closing during which he has competed. Chalmers was the Olympic gold medalist in 2016 and world champion in 2023, and he added a bronze right here with a time of 47.17, solely 9 hundredths from his career-best time. Caribe ended up fourth (47.17) with Kornev fifth (47.35).

“I was never going to swim 46.5 or around that mark unfortunately. I would have loved to see 46 next to my name, but I’m really, really proud of that performance, and to come away with a medal in such a stacked final is something I’m extremely proud of,” Chalmers mentioned.

Absent from this closing was Pan, who light to tenth within the semifinals at 47.81, nearly one-and-a-half seconds shy of his world document.