The Romanian Cup concluded in Otopeni after a weekend in which David Popovici went 47.85 in the 100 free while also rattling his national 100 fly mark.
Popovici wasn’t the only man to command the spotlight with three-time world junior medallist Vlad Stancu completing a successful – if gruelling – programme.
Popovici’s time matched the 47.85 he did leading off the Romanian quartet in the 4×100 prelims at the 2022 European Championships.
David Popovici: Photo Courtesy: LEN
That followed his progression of 47.20 (prelims) and 46.98 (semis) in Rome before he went on to set the world record of 46.86 at the Foro Italico.
The 18-year-old’s performance at the Romanian Cup was his 21st journey inside 48 seconds and his second-swiftest of the season following his 47.61 at the Romanian Championships in April which stands second in the rankings behind Pan Zhanle’s 47.22 from the Chinese Nationals.
A list of the 21 occasions in which David Popovici has cracked the 48-second barrier in the 100 freestyle:
46.86 (Euros-2022)
46.98 (Euros-2022)
47.07 (World Juniors-2022)
47.13 (Worlds-2022)
47.13 (World Juniors-2022)
47.20 (Euros-2022)
47.23 (World Juniors-2022)
47.30 (Euro Juniors-2021)
47.34 (Euro Juniors-2022)
47.37 (World Juniors-2022)
47.54 (Euro Juniors-2022)
47.56 (Euro Juniors-2021)
47.58 (Worlds-2022)
47.60 (Worlds-2022)
47.61 (World Juniors-2022)
47.61 (Romanian Champs-2023)
47.69 (Euro Juniors-2022)
47.72 (Olympics-2021)
47.76 (Euro Juniors-2022)
47.85 (Euros-2022 & Romanian Cup-2023)
The two-time world champion also went 52.45 in the 100 fly – 0.15 outside his Romanian record of 52.30 set at the Romanian nationals in April.
On Sunday he went 1:47.39 in the 200 free prelims although he didn’t compete in the finals.
Stancu won four titles over the three-day meet, starting off with a 3:47.17 PB in the 400 free.
On Saturday he completed a gruelling 200 fly (2:00.17) and 1500 double, going 15:32.87 in the longest race in the pool.
The 17-year-old returned on Sunday to post 7:59.80 in the 800 free.