By Sam Blacker on SwimSwam
2025 LEN U23 European Championships
Thursday, June 26 – Saturday, June 28 X-bionic® sphere Pool, Šamorín, Slovakia LCM (50m) Start Times – Local: Prelims – 9:30 am / Finals – 6:00 pm Start Times – EST: Prelims – 3:30 am / Finals – 12:00 pm Meet Central Psych Sheets Live Results Livestream (Pay-To-Watch) Recaps: Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 Finals: Day 1 | Day 2David Popovici came within a tenth of his season-best from December to take top spot in the heats this morning at the European U23 championships. The former world record holder was 47.38 as the only swimmer under the 48-second barrier, and was eight-tenths of a second ahead of LSU sophomore Jere Hribar.
After a dominant 200 freestyle on Day 1 where he won by nearly three seconds in a time of 1:43.64, his fourth-fastest time ever, Popovici is the hot favourite to do the 100/200 double tonight. Only one other swimmer in tonight’s final has broken 48 seconds, 8th seed Diogo Matos Ribeiro, so the real question will be just how fast the Romanian goes.
He was out in 22.95 tonight before closing in 24.43, both of which were the fastest splits in the field. Popovici holds a best of 46.86 from 2022, and was 46.88 when winning gold at the European Championships last year.
Popovici is one of the few world-finalist-level swimmers competing at these championships, and has previously shown a willingness to race at some of the secondary championships such as this one even in years with a major championship.
He threw down rapid times at the European Championships last summer prior to the Olympic games, and in 2022 competed at Worlds, Europeans and World Juniors, winning the 100 and 200 freestyle at all three. At World Juniors he was 47.3 or better on four occasions, on three relay leadoffs and in the individual final.
He stays at 5th in the world this year, but will be targeting the 47-second barrier and the #1 spot tonight. He’ll likely have two opportunities tonight, with Romania making the final of the mixed 4×00 free relay in 8th place.
2024-2025 LCM Men 100 Free
JackUSAALEXY06/0346.992GuilhermeCARIBE SANTOSBRA47.1004/233Kyle ChalmersAUS47.2704/044DavidPOPOVICIROU47.3004/125EgorKORNEV RUS47.4204/17View Top 26»
The field behind Popovici has some serious star power. Jere Hribar set a new best of 48.18 to take lane 5 for tonight, and is only five-hundredths of a second off Nikola Miljenic’s Croatian record set last year. Alex Cohoon (48.81) and Kamil Sieradzki (48.98) both have bests in the 48-low range, whilst Diogo Ribeiro (49.04), who will be in lane 8 tonight, has a best of 47.98 and was last night’s 50 free winner in a new Portuguese record.
Other Day 2 Prelims Highlights:
Olympic Finalist Honey Osrin had the fastest time in the women’s 200 backstroke this morning, going 2:12.68 to lead Eszter Szabo-Feltothy (2:13.23). She holds a best of 2:07.84 that she set in Paris last summer, and will be looking to make a statement after missing the 100 final yesterday. Adela Piskorska, the 100 backstroke champion, snuck into the final in 8th place. Milou van Wijk continued her great sprint freestyle form to take top spot in the women’s 100 free, going 53.99 to lead the field by over half a second. Nina Holt (54.60) and Roos Vanotterdijk (55.04) will both challenge her tonight, while last night’s 200 free co-champions Nikolett Padar (54.68, 3rd) and Lilla Minna Abraham (55.30, 7th) both made it through to tonight’s final. Luka Mladenovic will be gunning for the breaststroke sweep in tonight’s 100, and led the field by over half a second in a time of 1:00.59. The Michigan commit holds a best of 59.95 from the AP Race international last month, and has set two big personal bests in the 50 breast (27.12 -> 26.72) and 200 breast (2:11.79 -> 2:10.09) here in Slovakia. Valentin Bayer’s Austrian Record of 59.54 may be on notice. Volodymyr Lisovets (1:01.17) may be his closest challenger after splitting 58.96 at last summer’s European Championships for Ukraine. Great Britain’s Jack Skerry dropped a quarter of a second from his personal best in the 100 back, set earlier this year, posting a 53.46 to lead the heats by nearly a second. Oleksandr Zheltyakov (54.4) and Apostolis Siskos (54.61) will be either side of him tonight, whilst in a reversal of yesterday’s 50 back heats GB’s Matt Ward touched out compatriot Cam Brooker by 0.02, 54.66 to 54.68, to take the second available spot due to the max-two-per-country rules for finals. GB now has three men who have broken 53.5 so far this season – Oliver Morgan, Jonny Marshall and Jack Skerry. The last time they had more than one swimmer break that mark was back in 2015 when Liam Tancock and Chris Walker-Hebborn did so. The men’s 200 IM should be a fascinating race tonight, with all eight finalists separated by just 0.84 seconds this morning. Jeremias Pock (2:00.84) led the way as the only swimmer under 2:01, and is joined by compatriot Cedric Buessing (2:01.47). Charlie Hutchison, who made some noise on the 200 freestyle and then took silver in the 400 IM, was the odd man out for GB despite finishing 6th in 2:01.56, placing behind George Smith (2:01.23) and Matt Ward (2:01.38) to miss out on the final tonight.Read the full story on SwimSwam: David Popovici Drops 47.38 100 Free To Lead European U23 Prelims
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