Expected at home for the Short Course Swimming Championships, Romanian David Popovici finished the competition with a bronze medal, that of the 100m freestyle, Sunday in Otopeni in the suburbs of Bucharest.
Fourth in the 200m freestyle won by Matthew Richards on Saturday, he claimed bronze in the main race on Sunday in 46 sec 05. The title went to Frenchman Maxime Grousset (45.46) ahead of Italian Alessandro Miressi (45.51).
“I learned a lot from this experience,” said the Romanian, who often spoke of stress and pressure during the week. “I think I managed to deal with that stress and I’m really happy to be one of the three to hit the wall first.”
“You would have to be a sociopath not to be stressed when there are so many people who are there for you,” he said. “Stress is part of all that, you have to accept it so as not to be overwhelmed, so I choose to accept it (…) And in the end, we had fun, that’s the mission the most important in sport.
World record holder in the 100m freestyle long course, the Romanian prodigy had an exceptional year in 2022 but was disillusioned during the long course World Championships last summer in Japan. This short course competition was not necessarily the ideal format to relaunch but the 19-year-old Romanian said he was satisfied with his performances. “I didn’t really have a time in mind but I was aiming for a performance like this,” he said after his 200m finished just off the podium. “1 min 41 is very good, we expected that. It’s just that there were three guys who swam even faster than me.”
He also confirmed that he’s not really a fan of short course racing. “There are too many turns, too much swimming underwater. Everything happens too quickly, we don’t have time to think and really swim. Of course, some swimmers like it, but not me,” he admitted.
