David Popovici Finishes Fourth in Free 200 M Race at World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka

David Popovici disappoints and finishes fourth in Fukuoka at the World Swimming Championship. The result is disappointing for the former World Champion, especially. as he had qualified for the final with the best time.

Popovici led the race for the first three lengths but slowed down in the last. He was overtaken in the last 25 meters and lost the race.

The first position was taken by Matthew Richards (1:44.30), followed by Tom Dean (1:44.32) and Sunwoo Hwang (1:44.42). Visibly affected, the Romanian blamed the lack of proper training before the competition.

It’s not something that surprised me. That’s the sport. Sometimes you win, sometimes you take fourth place. Sometimes you get fourth place like I did in the Olympics. I had a lot to learn since then, as I will have to learn now. I am not distressed or angry. I just understood what happened!
You can’t always win. And when you don’t win, you have something much more valuable to learn. When you win, you win. It can be boring to win on the treadmill. It’s essential to have moments like this too.

Those who genuinely support me will understand that it can happen. It happened to Phelps; it can happen to me. I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired. The preparation wasn’t so good; we didn’t get to train as well as we would have liked because one thing or another came up. There were training methods we had to improvise, but I’ll learn from it.

David Popovici after the disappointing result in the 200 meter freestyle final

The result isn’t bad for a country which doesn’t have a long tradition in water sports. Still, the expectations were high before the race, and the way things evolved during the race added to the disappointment,

The Romanian champion has one more chance to prove this was an exception. The 100-meter final occurs on July 27, and Popovici can erase the impression he left during the 200-meter final.