2022 ROMANIAN SHORT COURSE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
- November 10 to 13, 2022
- Otopeni, Romani
- SCM (25 meters)
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- Day 1 Recap
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- Day 3 Recap
- Day 4 Recap
Reported by Riley Overend.
David Popovici added another national title to his haul on Friday with a victory in the men’s 200-meter freestyle at the Romanian Short Course National Championships in Otopeni.
The 18-year-old freestyle ace reached the wall in 1:43.06, slightly slower than his own national record of 1:42.12 from the European Short Course Championships in Kazan a year ago.
“It’s my own record from last year, done in Kazan,” Popovici told local media after the race. “I’ll probably beat it soon. It’s not necessarily something I set for myself, but if it happens, I’ll gladly accept it, as usual. What’s it like to break my own records? Pleasure. I know that’s one of the only goals in swimming: to beat myself.”
Popovici was more than three seconds ahead of the field as Mihai Gergely touched second in 1:46.59 and Vlad Stefan Mihalache placed third with a 1:49.08. He hasn’t lost an individual final in over a year since the FINA World Cup stop in Kazan last October.
“I am satisfied,” Popovici said. “The only goal was to come out clean, to be a calculated and well-structured race. I’m going to talk to the coach next, but it felt good, it felt like I was getting more and more ready for the Worlds next month.”
I have no sense for SCM, how does this time compare to a SCY 200 free?
Converter puts it about a 1:32.8. That sort of makes sense – in SCM, he’s 3.7 seconds short of the )suited) WR. 1:32.8 is 3.7 short of the fastest-ever.
So good time, but not a crazy time.
I’d say its more equivalent to a 1.30 high/1.31 low considering the scy records are “weaker” than the scm records.
aint no way dean farris, townley or pieroni would have been 1.39 low in scm, but rather about 1.5s slower than that
I bet if you throw a super-suit on them at their peak, one of those 3 could have been 1:39 low.
Let’s remember that the 1:39.37 SCM WR is from a 2009 Paul Beidermann
Yannick Agnel is the only man to have gone under 1:40 in a textile suit, and that was coming off of his Olympic form where he swam 1:43.14 in long course, so overall I lean a bit more towards what mahaney said though with Popovici’s walls being the weakest part of race to the point that his SCM pb is slower than his long course pb, he might still fall on the slower side of the conversion estimate.
Farris could have done it and unsuited
I can buy that SCY records are “weaker,” but 2 seconds weaker?
Definitely not two seconds weaker. SCY has a feature taper meet every year and although it is US focussed there are international talents at some colleges.
SCM has rarely had taper meets that the top talent focus on. Even Short Course Worlds is a lower priority and people don’t always full taper. A lot of top swimmers don’t even attend.
1.43.1 Agnel went under 1.40, nobody else has unsuited. You could argue the best realistic example we have is 1.29.6 Pieroni went 1.41 mid in 2018.
how about Townley Haas (1:29.5) going 1:40.4 at the ISL final? I feel like that’s a realistic example
Were they done the same year? I would argue 1.40.4 is faster than 1.29 mid, Haas was very volatile in his times.