OG 2020 - David Popovici: I don't believe I lost medal, I believe I won 4th place

AGERPRES special correspondent Teodor Ciobanu reports: Fourth place in the 200 m freestyle event, at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, is an excellent result for a 16 year old swimmer, David Popovici, who has all the qualities of becoming a superstar at the pool, but yet there remains a shadow of regret that he did not profit from the opportunity and didn't take a bronze medal for only 2/100. David Popovici, who finished fourth in the Olympic final for 200m freestyle, joked about the very little difference between three and fourth and said he has no regret for missing the Olympic medal. "I expect the coach to reproach me, I can't be anything but glad and he will be glad too, I'm sure. My initial purpose was not to get a medal, it was to win as much experience as possible, to show all of them what level I can bring to the crawl. I don't believe I lost the medal, I believe I won fourth place," said David Popovici at the mixed area after the 200m freestyle final. Swimming has contributed to Romania's track record at the Olympic games a number of nine medals, of which three gold, two silver and four bronze. The last Olympic medals taken by Romanian swimmers come from the Olympic Games of 2004 in Athens, when Alina Potec obtained gold at 200 m freestyle, and Razvan Ionut Florea took bronze at 200m backstroke. He remained the only male to have taken a podium up to now in the Olympic Games. Since 1952, since our first participation in the Olympic swimming competition, Romania's representatives missed only two editions of the Olympic Games, in 1964 and in 1976.AGERPRES(RO - author: Teodor Ciobanu; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Maria Voican)