{"id":651001,"date":"2026-08-14T09:24:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T16:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=651001"},"modified":"2026-08-14T11:21:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T18:21:57","slug":"european-championships-day-five-finals-more-history-beckons-for-david-popovici","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-day-five-finals-more-history-beckons-for-david-popovici\/","title":{"rendered":"European Championships, Day Five Finals: More History Beckons For David Popovici"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>European Championships, Day Five Finals: More History Beckons For David Popovici<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omegatiming.com\/2026\/european-aquatics-swimming-championships--live-results\">Results<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/eurovision\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Watch the European Championships Live (And Free!)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-marrit-steenbergen-stamps-100-free-cr-maxime-grousset-rattles-french-fly-mark\/\">Day 1 prelims report<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-three-crowns-to-be-decided-in-day-one-finals\/\">Day 1 finals report<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-day-two-prelims-nathan-muratory-blazes-200-back-wjr-as-ndoye-brouard-eliminated-sprint-queen-sjostrom-back-in-familiar-territory\/\">Day 2 prelims report<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-day-two-finals-continental-glory-beckons-in-paris\/\">Day 2 finals report<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-day-three-prelims-kristof-milak-starts-quest-for-fourth-straight-100-fly-title\/\">Day 3 prelims report\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-day-three-finals-sarah-sjostrom-david-popovici-among-finalists\/\">Day 3 finals report<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-day-four-prelims-david-popovici-launches-200-free-defence\/\">Day 4 prelims report<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-day-four-finals-filip-nowacki-continues-british-breaststroke-tradition-with-200-victory\/\">Day 4 finals report<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>David Popovici<\/strong> can write another line in history with the 100\/200 freestyle treble double on the line in Paris tonight.<\/p>\n<p>The Romanian won the double at Roma 2022 and Belgrade 2024 and he has already made it three straight 100 free titles in the French capital.\u00a0He is in lane four for the 200 at the Olympic Aquatic Centre tonight.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Angharad Evans<\/strong> won the 100m breaststroke although world record-holder <strong>Evgeniia Chikunova<\/strong> presents a formidable barrier to her hopes of a double in the 200.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Simona Quadarella<\/strong> returns after 800 gold for the 1500 final, <strong>Pavel Samusenko<\/strong> heads the men\u2019s 50 back and the mixed 4&#215;100 free crown will be decided.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the action, there was a standing ovation for <strong>Laure Manaudou<\/strong> with the crowd rising as one to cheer the retired Olympic, world and European champion.<\/p>\n<h3>Women\u2019s 100m Butterfly<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Roos Vanotterdijk<\/strong> defended the title she won two years in Belgrade with a gun to tape victory.<\/p>\n<p>The Belgian was a sliver inside European record pace at halfway in 25.97 before coming home to touch in 56.08 as she added 100 gold to her 50 fly silver behind the great Sarah Sjostrom.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Angelina Kohler<\/strong>, the 2024 world champion, was second in 56.39 with Neutral Athlete <strong>Daria Klepikova<\/strong> third in 56.76.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"651008\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-day-five-finals-more-history-beckons-for-david-popovici\/women-100-fly-paris-final\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-100-fly-paris-final.png\" data-orig-size=\"781,391\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"women 100 fly paris final\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-100-fly-paris-final-700x391.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-100-fly-paris-final.png\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-651008\" src=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-100-fly-paris-final-700x391.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"601\" height=\"301\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-100-fly-paris-final-280x140.png 280w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-100-fly-paris-final-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-100-fly-paris-final-450x225.png 450w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-100-fly-paris-final-533x267.png 533w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-100-fly-paris-final.png 781w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 601px) 100vw, 601px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Men&#8217;s 200 Freestyle<\/h3>\n<p>For the third time in his still developing career, <strong>David Popovici<\/strong> has completed the 100\/200 freestyle double at the European Championships. The Romanian took care of the longer distance on Friday night in Paris, leading wire-to-wire for victory in 1:44.15. Popovici was never threatened en route to capping the same feat he managed at the 2022 and 2024 editions of the Euro Champs.<\/p>\n<p>Coming off the No. 3 performance in history in the 100 freestyle, Popovici didn\u2019t record one of his best times in the 200 freestyle, but he was plenty strong enough to defeat Lithuania\u2019s <strong>Tomas Navikonis<\/strong> (1:44.55) and Great Britain\u2019s <strong>James Guy<\/strong> (1:44.87), who were the silver and bronze medalists and produced personal-best times.<\/p>\n<p>Popovici took the lead off the start, splitting 24.01 for the opening 50 meters and going through the midway point of the race in 50.53. Given his finishing history, Popovici was perfectly positioned at that stage and he closed out his latest gold with a 1:17.36 split at the 150 and a homecoming length of 26.79. Navikonis actually out-split Popovici on the final lap, behind a split of 26.37, but his early deficit left too much room to overcome.<\/p>\n<p>Guy\u2019s bronze medal matched the third-place finish he recorded at the 2016 European Championships, that timespan exhibiting Guy\u2019s staying power in the sport. More impressive is the fact that he set a personal best, lowering his previous top time of 1:45.04. For Guy to join the sub-1:45 club 30 years old is a tribute to his longevity.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"651009\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-day-five-finals-more-history-beckons-for-david-popovici\/m200freef-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/M200FreeF.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1396,654\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"M200Free(F)\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/M200FreeF-700x500.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/M200FreeF-1024x480.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-651009 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/M200FreeF.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1396\" height=\"654\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/M200FreeF.jpg 1396w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/M200FreeF-1024x480.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/M200FreeF-280x131.jpg 280w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/M200FreeF-300x141.jpg 300w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/M200FreeF-450x211.jpg 450w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/M200FreeF-1200x562.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/M200FreeF-533x250.jpg 533w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1396px) 100vw, 1396px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Women\u2019s 200m Breaststroke<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Evgeniia Chikunova<\/strong> came through on the final 50 to clinch the title and thwart <strong>Angharad Evans\u2019<\/strong> bid for the 100\/200 double.<\/p>\n<p>Evans went through 100 in 1:06.54 \u2013 well inside Chikunova\u2019s WR pace \u2013 but the Neutral Athlete bided her time, acting as the hound to Evans&#8217; hare. She\u00a0came past the Briton in 2:19.32, 0.54 inside the championship record of 2:19.84 held by Dane <strong>Rikke Moller Pedersen<\/strong> since Berlin 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Evans was second in 2:21.21 to become the fourth British woman to win silver in this event and the first since <strong>Molly Renshaw<\/strong> at Berlin 2014. Evans has now won three golds and a silver across the Commonwealth Games and European Championships in what has been a real breakthrough season for the Scot.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mona McSharry<\/strong> of Ireland clinched her second medal of the week in 2:22.43 to add to her 100 silver.<\/p>\n<p>Evans, coached by Ben Higson at the University of Stirling, said: If\u00a0I&#8217;m going to come second, it&#8217;s going to be to the world record holder, and the 200 is still a new event to me. I hesitate saying that because, you know, I&#8217;ve had massive drops in that event, but I&#8217;m not as experienced in it as I am the 100, and I&#8217;m still learning how to swim it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And I swam it very bravely tonight. I absolutely went for it, and I know that a lot of the other girls can come back fast, and I just left everything on the table tonight. And it&#8217;s my last individual swim of the year, and I had absolutely nothing to lose. I&#8217;ve already earned myself the title of European champion, which is such an honour, and I just went into tonight to just give it my all and leave everything in the pool.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And I said to Ben (Higson) before, there&#8217;s no losing tonight. Either I gain more experience or I gain a medal and I ended up gaining both. So it was probably the most painful race I&#8217;ve done. Going out in 1:06.5 isn&#8217;t easy at all, but, the brave are usually favoured.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"651015\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-day-five-finals-more-history-beckons-for-david-popovici\/women-200-breast-final-paris\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-200-breast-final-paris.png\" data-orig-size=\"777,372\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"women 200 breast final paris\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-200-breast-final-paris-700x372.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-200-breast-final-paris.png\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-651015\" src=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-200-breast-final-paris-700x372.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"287\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-200-breast-final-paris-280x134.png 280w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-200-breast-final-paris-300x144.png 300w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-200-breast-final-paris-450x215.png 450w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-200-breast-final-paris-533x255.png 533w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/women-200-breast-final-paris.png 777w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Men\u2019s 50m Backstroke<\/h3>\n<p>Just 0.03 separated the first three men home spearheaded by <strong>Miroslav Knedla<\/strong> of Czechia who won the title by 0.01 in 24.11.<\/p>\n<p>World record-holder <strong>Kliment Kolesnikov<\/strong> was second in 24.12, 0.02 ahead of fellow Neutral Athlete <strong>Pavel Samusenko<\/strong> (24.14).<\/p>\n<p>Knedla claimed world and European junior crowns but his title tonight was his first in the senior long-course pool. <strong>Apostolos Christou<\/strong> of Greece was locked out of the podium by 0.01 in 24.15 as he was thwarted in his three-peat bid.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"651040\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-day-five-finals-more-history-beckons-for-david-popovici\/men-50-back-final-paris\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/men-50-back-final-paris.png\" data-orig-size=\"740,283\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"men 50 back final paris\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/men-50-back-final-paris-700x283.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/men-50-back-final-paris.png\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-651040 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/men-50-back-final-paris-700x283.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"283\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Women\u2019s 1500m Freestyle<\/h3>\n<p>Simona Quadarella won her fourth title in the longest race in the pool with a dominant performance in championship record time.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian was only narrowly ahead of Isabel Gose at halfway with the pair pretty much stroke for stroke and eyeball for eyeball.<\/p>\n<p>Quadarella though accelerated and put almost a body length between the two of them and was never threatened thereafter to come home in 15:46.22, exactly four seconds inside Boglarka Kapas\u2019 CR that had stood for 10 years since London 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Gose won silver in 15:49.31 with Maya Werner making it a German 2-3 punch in 15:52.50.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>European Championships, Day Five Finals: More History Beckons For David Popovici Results Watch the European Championships Live (And Free!) Day 1 prelims report Day 1 finals report Day 2 prelims<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7575,"featured_media":651003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,122074],"tags":[121151,40585,128885,93527,124575,32014,131299,51270,35360,131053,40417],"class_list":["post-651001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-europe","tag-angharad-evans","tag-apostolos-christou","tag-david-popovici","tag-evgeniia-chikunova","tag-isabel-gose","tag-james-guy","tag-miroslav-knedla","tag-mona-mcsharry","tag-rikke-moller-pedersen","tag-roos-vanotterdijk","tag-simona-quadarella"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>David Popovici On Brink Of More History In Paris<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"David Popovici can write another line in history with the 100\/200 freestyle treble double on the line at the European Championships in Paris.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-day-five-finals-more-history-beckons-for-david-popovici\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"European Championships, Day Five Finals: More History Beckons For David Popovici\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"David Popovici can write another line in history with the 100\/200 freestyle treble double on the line at the European Championships in Paris.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-day-five-finals-more-history-beckons-for-david-popovici\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-14T16:24:23+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-14T18:21:57+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260812_GSca_PS39114.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Liz Byrnes - 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