David Popovici Negative Splits 48.52 100 Free Heats Swim

By Retta Race on SwimSwam

2024 ROMANIAN NATIONALS

• Wednesday, April 17th – Sunday, April 21st
• Otopeni, Romania
• LCM (50m)
• Start List
• Recap #1/Recap #2
• Results

Day 4 finals of the 2024 Romanian Nationals are just now getting underway from Otopeni but we wanted to point out a significant swim that came in this morning’s heats.

Racing in the prelims of the men’s 100m freestyle, 19-year-old phenom David Popovici cranked out a solid morning out of 48.52.

Besides the fact he was the sole swimmer under 49 in his already-speedy outing, Popovici also negative split this swim to land lane 4 for tonight’s main event.

Popovici opened in 24.29 and closed in 24.23, with the splits representing a rare negative differential in a race of this rapidity.

The teen did the same type of effort at last month’s Antwerp Diamond Meet where he posted a heats swim of 48.57, negative splitting 24.33/24.24. He ultimately earned gold in the final in 48.34.

We’ll see what the former world record holder has in store for the medal-contending contest shortly. His former WR remains at the 46.86 notched in 2022.

Already here he’s produced a 200m free mark of 1;45.10 and a new lifetime best of 3:47.54 in the 400m free.

SwimSwam: David Popovici Negative Splits 48.52 100 Free Heats Swim