2021 LEN EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Swimming: Monday, May 17th – Sunday, May 23rd, 2021
- Budapest, Hungary
- Prelims at 10:00 am local/Finals at 6:00 pm local
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- Entry List
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The men’s 100m freestyle is one of the most highly-anticipated events of these European Championships and one 16-year-old is making the most of his opportunity to race.
16-year-old David Popovici of Romania scorched a time of 48.30 to clear the heats this morning in Budapest. That outing already obliterated the 49.09 he produced just this past April at a junior meet in Ukraine. There, he posted splits of 23.99/25.10 to earn his new PB, but that was before he stepped foot onto the Duna Arena pool deck.
This morning, Popovici pounced to the wall in splits of 23.31/24.99 to score his spot in the semifinal.
This evening, the Romanian teen managed to drop another .02 from that result, posting 48.28 with spits of 23.37/24.91. That new lifetime best and national standard renders Popovici as the 6th seed along with Switzerland’s Romany Mityukov.
Again for perspective, Popovici’s times scorch the top times ever produced in the United States for the men’s 15-16 age group. The U.S. National Age Group Record stands at 49.28 from Caeleb Dressel, a time which Popovici now overtook by an entire second with tomorrow’s final yet to come.
Reigning Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers of Australia held a PB of 48.69 before turning 17, while Great Britain’s Jacob Whittle cranked out a time of 48.76 at this April’s British Championships to qualify for Tokyo as a member of his nation’s 400m free relay.
Chalmers’ 16 year old best was 48.69 not 49.27.
Depending on how tomorrow’s final goes, he could be one of the youngest ever to break 48 seconds.
Who is the youngest?
Brazilian Pedro Spajari was 16 years, 2 months, 0 weeks and 4 days old when he went 47.95 at the Maria Lenk Trophy in 2013
Tomorrow, is Popovici would be precisely 6 months older.
disclaimer, researching this cost me only 10 minutes by looking at all the 199 sub 48 swims registered in the FINA rankings, so there is a possibility that I overlooked someone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN_lDFUOo6c
That seems to be footage of that race…canˋt find his name or a sub48-time
Because it was in 2018.
https://cbda.org.br/cbda/natacao/evento/31927/campeonato-brasileiro-absoluto-de-natacao
https://cbda.org.br/cbda/natacao/evento/26925
https://www.fina.org/athletes/1020853/pedro-spajari
Okay, thought I could trust FINA’s rankings, but apparently not. My bad
I think this is a mistake.
Absolutely.
It was in 2018 at the Maria Lenk Trophy in the semis. This is a mistake of the rankings.
chalmers’ 48.69 and whittle’s 48.74 probably should be mentioned for perspective
big fan of him. dudes a beast
Bananas