By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
This story was submitted by Paul Georgescu and written by Simona Klodnischi. SwimSwam has edited it for clarity.
Reigning Olympic and world champion sprinter David Popovici tackled a new swimming venture on Sunday, competing in an open water relay in his home country of Romania.
Popovici competed in a 3×500-meter relay with his coach, Adrian Radulescu, and one of his training partners, Andrei Enache, as part of the Atlantisman open water competition in the Black Sea, hosted at the Jupiter resort in Constanța County. They placed 2nd overall.
“We did this relay race in the idea that it could be a lot of fun,” said Enache, who also won the men’s 10km open water event. “This was an old idea of mine, to team up with my coach and with David for a relay race, and I think it was fun for all three of us.”
Popovici opined that the race in the Black Sea was quite tough, and challenged up-and-rising athletes to overtake him ‘slowly’.
‘In the first half of the race, there were some huge waves,” he said. “I’m used to waves coming only from the nearby lanes, but they don’t compare to the waves of the sea. I got pretty tired, but it was a nice experience, because we were together, we did something different together, and I’d like to come again. I want us to see each other again in the coming years and have as many competitors as possible. I want us to meet at training sessions, in competitions and even for you to overtake me.
“It’s a challenge. Don’t rush! Let me stay around a little longer. You can do it, and I want us to race each other.”
The winners of the relay race of the second edition of Atlantisman were a trio registered with the Constanta Municipal Sports Club: Andrei Iaschiu, Mateen Sediq and Luca Boldura. They posted a time of 13:13, while Popovici’s squad finished in 13:57. (Given those times are well under 1:00 per 100 pace, we’re presuming the course was short and/or greatly affected by the waves.)
Iaschiu also took third place on Saturday in the 10-kilometer race, with Enache winning in 1:47:54 and him taking 3rd in 1:57:52. Enache (20:15) and Iaschiu (20:55) also went 1-2 in the 2km event.
In the women’s competition, the 10-kilometer marathon was won by Erika Fortu from the Ploiesti Municipal Sports Club, clocking 2:10:54.
One of the relay events also saw the organizer, the president of the Romanian Ice Swimming and Open Water Association, Paul Georgescu, hitting the water.
“The hardest thing is to organize such a competition, but I had an entire team by my side whom I would like to thank,” Georgescu said. “This year we had nearly 250 participants, almost 100 more than last year, and I am glad that this competition is growing. I invested in it my experience with previous international open water swimming competitions, but it is also a project that I want to develop, to bring as many good swimmers from other countries as possible, because that way the value of our athletes will also increase.”
Romania has several open water competitions both in mountain regions and in the Black Sea; Atlantisman is considered one of the most difficult, due in part to the changing sea currents and the challenging 10-kilometer event.
You can find full results of the 2025 AtlantisMan competition here.
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