“He's a top 10 guy, what he does is amazing”

The start of the year in world swimming was marked by the success of Australian Cameron McEvoy, who managed to swim the 50m freestyle in 20.88s, while representing a new world record. The previous record, 20.91s, belonged to Cesar Cielo and was set in 2009 in a then-banned polyurethane suit.

The Australian gave himself a complete restart and looked for new training methods to reach the brightest medals.

McEvoy hopes his method, based on extremely low mileage in the pool, race-intensity training, lots of weight room sessions focused on muscle and strength growth, technique analysis and improvement, and inspiration from other sports, will be embraced by as many swimmers as possible.

When McEvoy, the 2024 Olympic and 2023 world champion in the 50m freestyle, achieved the new world record, David Popovici hailed the moment on social media.

David Popovici: “It's amazing how he innovates”

What does he think the Australian is doing? “Awesome! Cam McEvoy is one of the athletes, not just swimmers, that I look up to and respect the most. He's a 10. It's amazing what he's doing and what he can achieve and how he's innovating this new style of training for the 50m ultra-sprint.” said David Popovici on Wednesday, at the National Championships in Otopeni. The Romanian has as his best performance in this test a 21.83, recorded last year in the domestic competition.

After winning the 50m freestyle, the Olympic, world and European champion has two more individual events, the 200m freestyle (Thursday) and the 100m freestyle (Saturday), as well as two relay events.

“After the World Championships in Singapore last year, I created a bigger group that I train with, I have more training partners at the moment, but also more coaches. They were my friends before, but now they are also my colleagues and I want to climb the highest step of the podium together,” said David Popovici.

The National Championships, where 695 athletes from 89 clubs are participating, ends on April 26.