Heavy favorite to win the 200m freestyle gold medal at the Fukuoka Swimming Championships, David Popovici finished off the podium (4th).

Davyd PopovychPhoto: Gian Mattia D’Alberto – LaPresse / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia

Immediately after the trial, David gave the first explanation of what happened. The Romanian athlete said he was satisfied with the first three lengths in the pool, but not with the weak end of the race.

“No one likes to lose. I won’t lie. I’m not upset, I’m not angry. But I’m fine. The first three lengths of the pool were great, but I just couldn’t take it anymore. That is, I gave as much as I could.

It happens. Once we got to the end, I related that feeling to how much we managed to prepare and how we managed to prepare. It’s a sport. Sometimes you win, sometimes you take fourth place” – Davyd Popovychquoted by gsp.ro.

200 m freestyle race of the Swimming Championship, final rating

1 Matthew Richards (Great Britain) 1:44.30 / gold

2 Tom Dean (Great Britain) 1:44.32 / silver

3 Sunwoo Hwang (South Korea) 1:44.42 / bronze

4 David Popovici (Romania) 1:44.90

5 Luke Robson (USA) 1:45.09

6 Hojun Lee (South Korea) 1:46.04

7 Kieran Smith (USA) 1:46.10

8 Felix Aubeck (Austria) 1:46.40

Know

  • David is the third fastest swimmer in history at this distance (1:42.97, at EC Rome 2022), after German Paul Biedermann (1:42.00) and American legend Michael Phelps (1:42.96).