ROME, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- 17-year-old Romanian world champion David Popovici became the youngest swimmer to break the men's 100m freestyle world record at the European Swimming Championships here on Saturday.
Popovici stormed home in a time of 46.86 seconds and shattered the 13-year-old world mark of 46.91 set by Brazil's Cesar Cielo at the 2009 FINA world championships, which also were held at the same pool at Rome's historic Foro Italico.
In the men's 100m freestyle final, Popovici was the second in the first 50m with 22.74 and turned to dominate the field with 24.12 in the second half, beating Hungarian butterfly world champion Kristof Milak 47.47 and Italian Alessandro Miressi 47.63, respectively.
Popovici also broke the world junior record, European record, European junior record and meet record at the same time.
The Romanian young sensation claimed two golds in the 100m and 200m free at the FINA worlds in Budapest, Hungary in June. ■
