David Popovici returned to the Foro Italico the morning after setting a world junior 100 free record to head the field in the individual event on day two of the European Junior Championships.
The 16-year-old blasted 47.56 on the lead-off for the Romanian boys’ 4×100 free relay on Tuesday to take 0.01 from Andrei Minakov‘s 2020 mark.
With that he went fourth in the rankings with Tokyo getting under way in a little over a fortnight.
Popovici split 23.89/25.61 to stop the clock at 49.50 with Britain’s Ed Mildred (49.95) and Poland’s Mateusz Chowaniec (50.02) the next swiftest into Wednesday evening’s semis.
Simone Cerasuolo clocked the fastest boys’ 100 breaststroke in a notable 1:00.78, Berke Saka – who turns 18 on Friday – led the 200IM in 2:01.57 and Aleksandr Stepanov heads the 1500 free in 15:15.59.
Anastasiia Markova topped the girls’ 200 fly in 2:10.63, Carmen Weiler Sastre led the 100 back in 1:01.37 and Russia headed the mixed 4×100 free in 3:33.34.
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