Seventeen-year-old David Popovici of Romania grew to become the youngest swimmer to interrupt the world swimming document within the males’s 100-meter freestyle Saturday, beating the mark set greater than 13 years in the past in the identical pool.
Popovici touched in 46.86 seconds on the European championships to prime the time of 46.91 set by Brazil’s César Cielo on the 2009 world championships, which additionally had been held at Rome’s historic Foro Italico.
Cielo established his document on July 30, 2009, on the final main worldwide meet to permit rubberized fits. It stood longer than any document within the occasion’s historical past, going again to 1905.
🚨🚨NEW WORLD RECORD ALERT 🚨🚨
David Popovici set a brand new World Record within the 100m Freestyle Final on the @leneuropeanaquatics Championships
⏱️46.86#swimming #worldrecord pic.twitter.com/4uTYYgtnHp
— FINA (@fina1908) August 13, 2022
Now, it belongs to one of many sport’s budding stars.
“There was no rush and I had to be extremely patient about the world record,” Popovici stated. “It has hurt but it’s always worth it and I feel fine right now. It felt great and it’s very special to break this record which was set here in 2009 by César Cielo.”
Cielo nonetheless holds the document within the 50 free, which is amongst eight males’s long-course requirements that stay from the rubber-suit period. Five of these had been set at these supercharged 2009 worlds.
Popovici went out in 22.74 and set the document by going 24.12 on the return lap to simply beat Hungarian butterfly specialist Kristóf Milák by 0.61. Italy’s Alessandro Miressi claimed the bronze in 47.63.
“This was a brilliant race, a joy to swim next to David,” Milák stated. “David is a fantastic swimmer, I think the same crazy genius of the freestyle that I am in the butterfly. It’s great that his name will hit the headlines for long, long years.”
Popovici’s emergence units up a doubtlessly big showdown on the 2024 Paris Olympics, the place American star Caeleb Dressel — winner of 5 gold medals eventually summer season’s Tokyo Games — will are available in because the reigning gold medalist within the 100 free.
Popovic had his coming-out at this 12 months’s worlds in Budapest, sweeping golds within the 100 and 200 free. He didn’t get an opportunity to swim the 100 in opposition to Dressel, who dropped out of the occasion for well being causes earlier than the ultimate.
Milák, world record-holder within the 200 fly, hopes to even be a part of the freestyle combine in Paris.
“My goal is very clear,” the Hungarian stated. “I just want to reach a level in this event to arrive to Paris 2024 with the capability of swimming a time somewhere very close to 47 seconds.”
