World swimming has another bona fide superstar on its hands.
Teenage sensation David Popovici continued his breakout season at the European Swimming Championships on Saturday (AEST), posting a sizzling time in the 100m freestyle semi-finals.
The 17-year-old touched the wall in 46.98 seconds, setting a new European record and breaking his own world junior record.
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He won his heat easily, finishing over a second ahead of Italian Lorenzo Zazzeri, while only two other swimmers, Kristof Milak and Alessandro Miressi, managed to go under 48 seconds.
Popovici became just the fourth swimmer ever to dip under the 47-second barrier, after world record holder Cesar Cielo (46.91), Alain Bernard (46.94) and Caeleb Dressel (46.96).
Bernard is still the fastest European ever but his time was not ratified by FINA in 2009 because it was swam in a non-approved suit.
Swimming fans were blown away by Popovici’s scintillating effort in Rome.
The Romanian, who goes by @chlorinedaddy on Instagram, is expected to threaten the world record again in the final, which he goes into as the raging favourite.
“It’s a fine route to the final and a step towards the right direction,” an understated Popovici said after the semi-final.
“It feels normal for me to go step-by-step and keep improving my time.”
Popovici has taken the swimming world by storm since emerging onto the scene with solid results at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.
And in June, he became the first man to win the 100m and 200m freestyle double at the World Championships in nearly 50 years.
He dominated the 200m freestyle final and claimed gold in the 100m final in the absence of Kyle Chalmers and Dressel.
Earlier this year he also won three European junior titles in his home town of Bucharest.
In other events, Italian world champion Nicolo Martinenghi won the 100m breaststroke.
Martinenghi was a double gold winner at the Budapest worlds and got the home crowd roaring in Rome with a time of 58.26sec in his final, beating countryman Federico Poggio by 0.72sec.
Andrius Sidlauskas took the bronze for Lithuania.
Margherita Panziera won the 200m backstroke, Thomas Ceccon claimed the honors in the 50m butterfly and Simona Quadarella won European gold in the 800m freestyle for the third straight time.
With AFP
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