2022 MULTI-NATIONS JUNIOR SWIMMING MEET
- April 9th & April 10th
- Kranj, Slovenia
- LCM (50m)
- Results
While the Olympic gold medalist and silver medalist in the men’s 200m free are set to battle it out in Great Britain tonight, another Tokyo finalist raced the event at a smaller meet to keep the list of potential Budapest podium toppers ever-evolving.
This morning at the British Swimming Championships in Sheffield, Olympic champion Tom Dean set the stage with a heats marker of 1:47.72 as the 4th seed while his podium partner-in-crime Duncan Scott led the British field in 1:47.22.
Meanwhile, in Slovenia, it was 17-year-old David Popovici of Romania who put up another solid 2free effort, clocking a time of 1:46.28. to set the bar on the day.
Popovici essentially put on a one-man show, beating the rest of the racers by over 4 seconds. The teen wasn’t too far off from even-splitting his race, opening in 52.83 and closing in 53.45 to capture his best time of the season.
Previously, the two-time Olympic finalist posted a time of 1:46.72 competing at last month’s Romanian Championships. As such he sliced .24 off of that result to now rank as 7th fastest performer in the world this season.
2021-2022 LCM Men 200 Free
Popovici
1:42:97 WJR
| 2 | Hwang Sunwoo | KOR | 1:44.47 | 06/20 |
| 3 | Thomas Dean | GBR | 1:44.98 | 06/20 |
| 4 | Drew Kibler | USA | 1:45.01 | 06/20 |
| 5 | Duncan Scott | GBR | 1:45.02 | 07/30 |
| 6 | Felix Auboeck | AUT | 1:45.11 | 06/20 |
| 7 | Kieran Smith | USA | 1:45.16 | 06/20 |
| 8 | Antonio Djakovic | SUI | 1:45.32 | 08/14 |
| 9 | Lukas Martens | GER | 1:45.44 | 04/10 |
| 10 | Elijah Winnington | AUS | 1:45.53 | 06/19 |
Popovici also topped the men’s 50m free podium here, knocking down a time of 22.57, while he reaped gold with a big-time 48.11 in the 100m free.
In that 100m, Popovici split 23.49/24.62 to crush his previous season-best of 48.50 from the aforementioned Romanian Championships. Popovici now bumps himself up the season’s world rankings from 11th to now the 5th fastest man so far.
2021-2022 LCM Men 100 Free
Popovici
46.86 WR
| 2 | Kyle Chalmers | AUS | 47.36 | 07/31 |
| 3 | Kristof Milak | HUN | 47.47 | 08/13 |
| 4 | Maxime Grousset | FRA | 47.54 | 06/21 |
| 5 | Josh Liendo | CAN | 47.55 | 06/21 |
| 6 | Lewis Burras | GBR | 47.63 | 06/21 |
| 6 | Alessandro Miressi | ITA | 47.63 | 08/13 |
| 8 | Zhanle Pan | CHN | 47.65 | 06/21 |
| 9 | Vladislav Grinev | RUS | 47.78 | 04/29 |
| 10 | Caeleb Dressel | USA | 47.79 | 04/26 |
Popovici was a force at the 2020 Olympic Games, making the finals of both the 100m and 200m free at just 17. He placed 7th in the 100m with a time of 48.04 and 4th in the 200m with a monster result of 1:44.68, missing the podium in the longer distance by only 02.
Prior to Tokyo at the European Junior Championships just two weeks before the Olympics, he swept the 50-100-200m freestyle events, posting a huge lifetime best of 47.30 in the 1free.
Popovici’s name is often mentioned alongside two other teenagers in the form of South Africa’s Matt Sates and Korea’s Hwang Sunwoo, both 18. The trio was among SwimSwam’s ‘stealthy six’ to watch for Paris 2024 based on promising performances and proven mettle alongside the big guns on big stages.
“Stealthy Six?” What about them was stealthy leading up to, and at, Tokyo? If anything, you should’ve called them the Stealthy Six in 2016. LIL LATE FOOL!
Well since some of them were 8, 9 or 10 years old in 2016, it was probably pretty hard to name them then. Are you ok Lil Tim? Seriously?
why are you not on skype smh
Seven races for Popovici in two days vs the five races he swam at MultiNations 2021. In the first session, Saturday morning, he swam 48.11 in the 100 free (49.09 12 months ago) and a 48.00 split in the 400 medley relay (49.07 12 months ago). In the second session, Saturday evening, he swam 22.57 in the 50 free (22.75 12 months ago) and 1.45.72 split with a great comeback and win for Romanian relay in the 800 free relay (Romania didn’t participate 12 months ago). In the third session, Sunday morning, 1.46.28 in the 200 free (1.48.62 12 months ago) and in the fourth session 2.02.31 in the 200 IM (2.02.17 12 months ago) and 48.44 in the lead-off… Read more »
Feel like it’s more Popovici and Hwang who are the dynamic duo, the PVDH regens.
Sates on a bit of a different path at least for now — he’s yet to deliver the goods at Hwang/Popovici level at a major LCM meet. He’s also not quite a 100/200 free specialist the way that Hwang/Popovici are — he can go up to 400, also more versatility with the IMs and fly.
Lest we forget: https://staging2.swimswam.com/could-matt-sates-be-the-next-michael-phelps/
The chosen one
Lukas Martens 1:45,44
He’s 21
And only 23 in Paris.
hopefully a new PB in the 50?
He has 22.22 (when he won EuroJuniors in Rome last July) in the 50 free. Two more events this afternoon (200 IM and 400 free relay) and then it will be interesting make a comparison with Popovici’s results at MultiNations 2021, 12 months ago.