Romanian star comes from clouds to win closest men's 200m freestyle final in Olympic history
Romanian star David Popovici has won the closest men's 200m freestyle final in Olympic history, edging out his nearest rival by just 0.02 seconds.
The Romanian had appeared to have fallen out of the running late on, but a superb touch onto the wall propelled him to the top of the podium ahead of Great Britain's Matt Richards.
"Do you know what? With 20 metres to go, I was starting to discount Popovici," Ian Thorpe, himself a former 200m gold medallist, said on commentary for Nine.
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David Popovici has won the closest men's 200m freestyle final in Olympic history. Clive Rose/Getty Images
"But he found something more to be able to bring it back up to the wall.
"The time isn't as fast as what we expected it to be, but wow, two hundredths of a second."
Richards finished just 0.02 seconds shy of Popvici's time of 1:44.72, while Luke Hobson from the USA was only a further 0.5 seconds back to grab the bronze.
Australian Max Giuliani wasn't too far off the pace, finishing less than a second behind Popovici as he came seventh.
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