{"id":609626,"date":"2025-04-09T13:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T20:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=609626"},"modified":"2025-04-09T13:24:46","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T20:24:46","slug":"david-popovici-fires-off-21-83-romanian-50-free-record-at-national-championships-robert-badea-lowers-200im-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/david-popovici-fires-off-21-83-romanian-50-free-record-at-national-championships-robert-badea-lowers-200im-mark\/","title":{"rendered":"David Popovici Fires Off 21.83 Romanian 50 Free Record At National Champs; Robert Badea Lowers 200IM Mark"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Popovici Fires Off 21.83 Romanian 50 Free Record At National Championships; Robert Badea Lowers 200IM Mark<\/h4>\n

David Popovici<\/strong> lowered the Romanian 50 free record to 21.83 on day one of the 2025 national championships in Otopeni.<\/p>\n

The Olympic 200 free champion entered the meet with a 22.16 PB en-route to gold at the 2022 European Junior Championships.<\/strong> He lowered that to 22.14 in prelims before taking down Norbert Trafandir’s<\/strong> previous standard of 21.98 that had stood since the 2013 worlds in Barcelona.<\/p>\n

\"\"

David Popovici: Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia<\/p><\/div>\n

It was within the qualification standard of 22.05 for the World Championships<\/strong> in Singapore, three years after winning double gold in Budapest.<\/p>\n

Popovici posted the only sub-22 time of the field with Patrick Dinu<\/strong> second in 22.40 and Daniel Alexandru Nicusan<\/strong> third in 22.99.<\/p>\n

Irina Ana Preda<\/strong> won the women’s equivalent in 26.06.<\/p>\n

Robert Badea<\/strong> was also on record-breaking form in the 200IM as he became the first Romanian inside 2mins. The 17-year-old set the previous record of 2:00.05 en-route to gold at last year’s European Juniors in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he won the medley double.\u00a0On Wednesday, he went 1:59.95 and now owns the three-fastest times in Romanian history.<\/p>\n

Matei-Cristian State<\/strong> was second in 2:02.39 with Mihai Gergely<\/strong> third home in 2:04.36.<\/p>\n

European junior champion Daria Mariuca Silisteanu<\/strong> won the women’s 100 back in 1:00.89 ahead of Aissia Claudia Prisecariu<\/strong> second in 1:01.60.<\/p>\n

Denis Popescu<\/strong> posted 54.72 to claim the men’s title with Alexandru Constantinescu<\/strong> (55.17) and Tudor Andrei Iordache<\/strong> (55.73) claiming the runners-up spots.<\/p>\n

Andrei Theodor Proca<\/strong> won the men’s 800 free in 8:01.53 with Diana Gabriela Stiger<\/strong> the only woman inside 9mins en-route to the title in 8:49.79.<\/p>\n

A Clubul Sportiv al Armatei Steaua Bucuresti quartet of Vlad Stefan Stancu<\/strong>, Badea, Rebecca Aimee Diaconescu<\/strong> and Maysa Ratiu<\/strong> headed the mixed 4×1 free relay in 3:36.43.<\/p>\n