World Aquatics Championships 2023: Matt Richards stuns David Popovici in men's 200m freestyle
The British swimmer capped a one-two with Tom Dean, while defending champion Popovic faded to finish fourth, missing out on the podium.
Swimming
Matthew Richards stole the show from defending champion David Popovici to win the men’s 200-metre freestyle at the the World Aquatics Championships 2023 in Fukuoka on Tuesday (25 July).
The British swimmer capped a one-two with Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Tom Dean (1:44.32) by touching the wall in a time of 1:44.30, a personal best.
Popovic finished fourth after leading for most of the race. His time was 1:44.90.
The narrow bronze went to last year's silver medallist Hwang Sunwoo of the Republic of Korea (1:44.42). The world record of 1:42.00 was set by Paul Biedermann in 2009.
"I'm pretty tired to be honest. Over the moon, it was a hell of a race," the 20-year-old Richards said after the race.
"I knew going into the race it was one of the most stacked 200 freestyle fields for a long time. It was amazing to come away with a 1-2 for GB.
"I could see all those boys well coming into the finish, really happy to get that done tonight and hopefully the first of many."
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Matthew Richards, right, and Tom Dean of Great Britain.
Gasps permeated through the arena as the 18-year-old Popovic ran out of steam in the last 50. The Romanian star did not make any excuses following the race, saying he just didn't have it coming home.
"It felt awful, it felt awful," Popovic said. "But that means we can improve something and that’s a good thing.
"If you have the absolute perfect race, you have nothing else to improve, know that you’ve basically reached the top - the limit - that you can do nothing better from thereon. I’m glad it happened now and I’m sure it has a meaning. I’m going to learn from it.
"The 100 is fortunately two times shorter but that doesn’t mean it’s going to hurt. I don’t think it’s going to hurt as bad though. I love the 200 race, I love the 100 race as well. For tomorrow I just need to make sure I sleep good and eat well and do my warm down."
Dean felt Popovici's youth may have cost him.
"He’s a young lad. It’s not the best way to swim a 200 free," Dean said. "I think he’s learning you can’t swim a race like that because you’ll pay for it on the back end. It’s such a tactical event. I think it’s the most tactical event."