David Popovici, the third national title in Otopeni » He prevailed in the 4×100 m free relay with his colleagues from Dinamo

Friday evening was an extremely noisy one in the Otopeni pool, where, towards the end of the meeting, the women's and men's 4x100m freestyle relay events took place.

In the men's event, in the last series, where athletes from three clubs competed in the senior category – Dinamo, CSM Constanța, Cluj University, the latter having two relays in the competition, David Popovici was also present.

He swam alongside Denis Popescu, Alessandro Petrișor Vlad and Bruno Santos Dutra, swimmers who train daily with David Popovici.

Denis Popescu was the one who opened with a time of 50.11, being followed by Bruno Santos Dutra with 50.76, by Alessandro Petrișor Vlad with 50.35, David Popovici finishing in 46.97 s. The time of the relay was 3:18.19, a new national record.

David Popovici: “I taught him nonsense first, but he speaks Romanian beautifully”

After the competition, the Brazilian who came to Romania to become better alongside David Popovici and Adrian Rădulescu, who is on his second training course in our country, said in a Romanian with a Portuguese accent: “Very happy for this result. I love the boys. I like them,” said the 23-year-old.

“We haven't really learned Portuguese, but he knows some words that he learned two years ago, he has an incredible learning capacity,” said Denis Popescu.

“He definitely learned more words in Romanian from us, of course we started with nonsense, how is it done, but he knows how to speak Romanian beautifully”, said David Popovici and laughingly asked Bruno not to say the words he learned.

Alessandro Petrișor Vlad, born in Italy to Romanian parents and who lives in this country, is also looking to become better. “I've been here since January, it's been a really nice experience. It's nice to have David helping us, but we motivate each other. Training together is more fun,” said Alessandro.

David added: “The relay is super fun and we've been training since the beginning of the season together. I'm very happy that we did this relay together, that we also broke the national record. I would call it a very beautiful day.”.

Denis Popescu was happy that he swam together in the same relay with David: “I think the others were intimidated, I certainly would have been if I were in their place. It's an advantage to have David.”

David Popovici swims in the queen's event on Saturday

Bruno Santos Dutra emphasized that he enjoyed the opportunity to compete alongside the Olympic, World and European champion. “I'm glad to have him as a friend, it's not just about swimming, it's about life,” Bruno said in English.

The senior podium was completed by the athletes from CSM Consntața (David Alexandru Stoica, Tudor Andrei Iordache, Matei Ștefan Hagiu, Matei Gabriel Silivestru) – 3:26.11 and by those from CS Universitatea Cluj (Nicolae Pcela, Philip Radu Cinpoeș, Andrei Cseh, Alexander Riley Sanchez) – 3:32.48. The other relay of the Cluj-Napoca club was disqualified for false start.

David Popovici won his third national title at this edition, after those in the 50 m freestyle and 200 m freestyle individual events. On Saturday, he will compete in the 100m freestyle.