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Romanian swimmer David Popovici voted Best Athlete in the Balkans, Bulgaria's Vezenkov placed 8th

David Popovici in Lima, Peru
Photo: David Popovici/Facebook

The 18-year-old Romanian swimmer David Popovici is the winner of the 49th edition of BTA's "Best Athletes of the Balkans" survey for 2022. The only Bulgarian in the top 10 - the basketball player Alexander Vezenkov - was ranked 8th.

Popovici won the world and European titles in the men's 100m and 200m freestyle, while also setting a new world record in the 100m freestyle. He added a total of ten gold medals from the World and European Junior Championships. This week he was also named the #1 swimmer in Europe for the season.

The national agencies of the countries of the region participated in the traditional survey - BTA (Bulgaria), ANA-MPA (Greece), AGERPRESS (Romania), Anadolu Agency (Turkey), Tanjug (Serbia), MINA (Montenegro), MIA (North Macedonia), HINA (Croatia), FENA (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and ATA (Albania).



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