The Popovici Show is on: Romania claims first-ever relay gold
David Popovici kicked off the party in style at European Junior Swimming Championships, his 47.54 blast over the opening leg of the 4x100m freestyle relay gave the Romanian quartet the necessary edge and in the end, they won by 0.08sec ahead of the Brits. Emma Carrasco claimed the first title of the meet, in the 400m IM, and the young Italian ladies were the fastest in the women’s free relay.
Fans gathering in large numbers created a brilliant atmosphere on the opening day, especially when the hosts’ poster boy David Popovici was splashing the water. The 2-time world champion cruised to the 200m free final with an easy swim in the second place, sparing his energy for the session ending relay.
There came the biggest thrills of the day: he produced a 47.54 blast in the opening leg – 0.04sec better than his winning time at the FINA Worlds in Budapest! – which put his team on track. Indeed, his split was almost identical to his Rome stunner (47.56) a year ago, but then the Russians managed to shave off the initial advantage by the end of the race. Over the following two legs it looked like the same would happen as the Brits took over the lead before the last 100m, but the hosts’ anchor Patrick Dinu stepped up. While in Rome he produced the weakest split (51.04), now he did a splendid job, clocked 49.72, gaining almost a full second on the Brits, and managed to out-touch them by 0.08sec at the wall. That brought the first-ever relay title for the Romanians (their time was also a second faster than a year ago – so Popovici did his best once more, while the others improved a lot during the last year).
In the other relay final Italy sailed away with an easy win, took the title 0.51sec ahead of the Brits, while the Germans came a distant third (in a rare scene, the favored Hungarians’ second swimmer stopped after 60m, it turned out Zsofia Ratkai had swallowed water into her lungs, only medical treatment could ease her shock).
In the opening day’s only individual final Spain’s Emma Carrasco claimed a stunning win from lane 8. She had been 4.38sec slower in the heats than the top finisher, but geared up for the afternoon session and left no chance for the others – her winning margin was 0.72sec.
For detailed results, visit: http://ejcotopeni2022.microplustiming.com
Press release from LEN, photos courtesy of LEN/Simone Castrovillari
