Swimming

David Popovici Out-Duels Vlad Stancu in Men’s 400 Free at Romanian Nationals

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By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

2023 ROMANIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Romanian star swimmer David Popovici continued his winning ways on Friday at the Romanian National Championships, swimming a 3:51.18 to lead the field in the men’s 400 free.

That’s the best barometer we’ve gotten of where he’s at for this week’s competition, as it is the closest that he’s come to a primary event so far this week – his specialties in the 100 and 200 free are yet to come over the weekend.

Popovici won the race by 1.3 seconds ahead of Vlad Stancu, an 18-year old who last summer in Lima won medals in the 400 (silver), 800 (bronze), and 1500 (bronze) freestyles at the World junior Championships. He was also the 2022 European Junior Champion in the 1500 free, and is arguably Romania’s 2nd-best active swimmer behind Popovici.

Popovici swam the 400 free (in prelims only) at the European Championships in August, though he wound up scratching the final to begin preparations for the World Junior Championships. That event was on the final day of the same meet where he broke the World Record in the 100 free.

After the 400 free on Friday, Popoovici said that he’s interested in the distance freestyle events.

“I want to try the 800 meters and 1,500 meters in the future,” he said in an interview on TVR. “I don’t think it’s time to specialize yet. I have to make the sstandard for the (Olympics) by March 2024, but I’m not in a hurry. We will get where we need to be, when we need to.”

Earlier in the meet, Popovici won the 50 free (22.62), 100 back (54.74), and the 50 fly (23.74). That time in the 50 fly is a new Romanian Record in the event. He also split a 47.55 on a 2nd-place Dinamo Bucurest 400 free relay that finished in 3:24.08. CSM Constanta was 2nd thanks to 49-second splits from teenager Patrick Sebastian Dinu and George Alexandru Stoica.

While most swim fans were most interested in the battle between Popovici and Stancu in that 400 free final, there was a stir in the building when Teodora Stoica, the daughter of the manager of the most famous soccer club in Romania FCSB, appeared to support Andrei Enache in the final, as he finished 5th. The pair are both members of Romania’s national ice swimming team, where at January’s championships Enache won a silver medal in the 250 free.

Stancu later in the day won the 200 fly in 2:01.03, which is just .06 seconds shy of his Romanian U18 Record in the event.

One senior National Record went down on Friday. Henrietta Fangli, a 22-year old from Clubul Sportiv Municipal Targu, won the women’s 50 breaststroke in 32.35. That broke the old record of 32.44 that was set almost exactly a decade ago by Ioana Popa at the 2013 Romanian Championships.

That record might not last long, though, as there was lots of young talent in the field. Alexandra Maticiuc (b. 2004) swam 33.15, Brigitta Vass (b. 2007) swam 33.40, and Alecsia Maria Tenciu (b. 2009) swam 33.56, just missing the Romanian Age Record for 14-year-olds.

A Romanian Age Record fell as well, in the men’s 50 breaststroke, where Alexandru Cucu swam 28.76 to break the U17 record that he in turn set in prelims at 29.03.

The event was won by Emil Dancanet in 28.48.

SwimSwam: David Popovici Out-Duels Vlad Stancu in Men’s 400 Free at Romanian Nationals

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