President of the Romanian Swimming and Modern Pentathlon Federation Camelia Potec declared on Monday at the premises of Romania House in Paris that 19-year-old David Popovici has what it takes to win the gold in the men's 200m freestyle, but called on the public to reign in their excitement, given that the world's best swimmers are to battle it out in the final.
"I saw a lot of people saying that we are already there, that we bagged the gold medal. It's not like that, we must let David focus, because after all it's the best eight athletes in the world lined up in this 200m freestyle final. Of course, David dashed into it as top seed, but anything can happen in a final. We hope that this day will bring us the joy we are all expecting and break the long bleak stretch of time Romanian swimming has no longer seen an [Olympic] medal. The last time was in Athens, the gold I took, and the bronze won by Razvan Florea. It's been 20 years since then. Of course David is capable of winning this gold medal, but we just have to be by his side and encourage him. We put our trust in him," said Potec.
David Popovici will swim for a medal in the men's 200m freestyle final of the Paris Olympics, after clocking the fastest in the semifinals, at 1:44.53.
Popovici, a double world champion and four-time European champion, had previously achieved the best heat time, 1:45.65.
The final will take place on July 29 at 21:40 Romania time.
At the Tokyo Olympics three years ago Popovici came in fourth in the 200m freestyle event, just 0.02 seconds shy of the podium.
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