For a while, it was playing out like deja vu all over again.
In the men's 200-meter freestyle final at the world swimming championships in Japan on Tuesday night, David Popovici of Romania led the pack through 150m, with South Korea's Hwang Sun-woo trailing him in second place. The two swimmers had finished first and second at last year's world championships in Budapest. And they appeared headed for the same results this time in Fukuoka.
But then Popovici inexplicably lost his steam over the home stretch. Hwang briefly moved into the lead, but Matthew Richards of Britain sprinted ahead of everyone for the stunning gold at 1:44.30. His countryman, Tom Dean, took the bronze just 0.02 second behind, while Hwang grabbed bronze in 1:44.42.
Popovici settled for fourth in 1:44.90. His final 50m split of 28.12 was the slowest among the eight finalists.
"Oh, it felt awful," Popovici said, when asked about his last 50m. "Yeah, it felt awful, but that means we can improve something. And that's a good thing because if you have the absolute perfect race and you have nothing else to improve, you know that you've basically reached the top. You can do nothing better from there on.
"And so I'm glad it happened now, and I'm sure it has a meaning that I'm going to learn from it," the 18-year-old added.
Popovici owns the world junior record time of 1:42.97. Hwang hasn't even been in the 1:43 range -- his bronze medal-winning time Tuesday is the new national record -- and the South Korean has often spoken of his admiration for Popovici.
The Romanian sensation, though, didn't quite live up his hype this time. He will have to pick up the pieces for the 100m freestyle, with heats scheduled for Wednesday morning.
"Well, the 100, fortunately, is two times shorter. That doesn't mean it's not going to hurt," he said. "I don't think it's going to hurt as bad though. But I love the 200 race. I love the 100 race as well. And so for tomorrow, I just have to make sure I sleep good and eat well, and do my warm down."
Source: Yonhap News Agency