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
The penultimate night of action at the 2024 Romanian Nationals saw former world record holder David Popovici back in the pool to contest the men’s 100m free.
After negative splitting a morning swim of 48.52, the 19-year-old posted a winning result of 47.86 to take the gold in this evening’s final.
Opening in 23.49 and closing in 24.37, Popovici led a trio of sub-50-second swimmers. Behind him was Patrick Sebastian Dinu who touched in 49.16 as the runner-up while George Adrian Ratiu bagged bronze in 49.53.
Popovici’s outing overtook his previous season-best of 48.01 logged at January’s Luxembourg Euro Meet. His best remains the 46.86 former world record he established at the 2022 World Championships before another 19-year-old, China’s Pan Zhanle, dropped it down to 46.80 at this year’s World Championships.
Already at these Nationals Popovici produced a 200m free mark of 1:45.10 and a new lifetime best of 3:47.54 in the 400m free.
On the women’s side, 17-year-old Rebecca Aimee Diaconescu unleashed the fastest 100m freestyle of her young career to take down a monumental Romanian record.
Diaconescu split 26.65/28.50 to stop the clock in 55.15, a result which wiped out the previous national standard of 55.40 Tamara Costache put on the books nearly 40 years ago…in 1986.
Entering this competition, Diaconescu’s lifetime best rest at the 55.64 posted at the 2023 European Junior Championships when she placed 4th.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Popovici Notches 47.86 Season-Best 100 Free, Diaconescu Clocks Monumental Romanian Record
