{"id":533047,"date":"2023-07-23T20:05:49","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T03:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=533047"},"modified":"2023-07-23T20:05:49","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T03:05:49","slug":"world-championships-day-2-prelims-david-popovici-third-in-jumbled-200-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-day-2-prelims-david-popovici-third-in-jumbled-200-free\/","title":{"rendered":"World Championships, Day 2 Prelims: David Popovici Third in Jumbled 200 Free"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Championships, Day 2 Prelims: David Popovici Third in Jumbled 200 Free<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2023 World Championships got its first look at David Popovici<\/strong> Monday morning in Fukuoka, Japan. It was enough to whet the appetite.<\/p>\n

Popovici swam 1:45.82 in prelims of the men\u2019s 200 freestyle, comfortably into the semifinals with the third-fastest time. The Romanian wunderkind was one of three swimmers under 1:46, setting up a loaded finals field.<\/p>\n

Luke Hobson<\/strong> set the pace in the preliminary heats with a time of 1:45.69. Great Britain\u2019s Matthew Richards<\/strong> edged out Popovici by .04 seconds in the final morning heat to get into the semifinals with the second seed. Tom Dean<\/strong> joins him in the top four, in 1:46.02. A scant 1.01 seconds separated finishers one through 16, and the spread from one through 26 was just 1.67 seconds.<\/p>\n