Paris Olympics: 200m champion Popovici says Pan world record an ‘amazing’ performance
- Romanian David Popovici finished third in 100m freestyle event, 48 hours after winning 200m freestyle gold at Games
Olympic swimming star David Popovici said he had no issues with Pan Zhanle’s “amazing” world-record shattering performance in the 100 metres freestyle final.
Popovici, who claimed bronze in the race two days after winning 200m freestyle gold, noted, however, that “doping scandals around the world … are mostly centred around a few countries”.
Some Chinese swimmers in Paris have aired frustration over consistently being smeared by doping accusations. Breaststroker Qin Haiyang said he suspected increased testing of Chinese swimmers resulted from “European and American teams feeling threatened by the performance of the Chinese teams”.
In the 100m freestyle final, Pan shaved 0.4 seconds off his own world-best time, swimming 46.40 to finish 1.08 seconds in front of silver medalist Kyle Chalmers, who managed 47.48.
At the Tokyo Olympics final three years ago, the first and last swimmers were separated by 1.08 seconds. The average margin of victory in Olympic men’s 100m freestyle finals is 0.3 seconds.
Popovici, whose personal best 46.88 in 2022 established a then world record, clocked 47.49 for bronze.
