The German Lukas Martens (22 years old) was coming after the Olympic gold obtained in the 400 meters freestyle, and in the final on Monday evening he went like a cannon. He had a lead of 0.4 seconds over the rest of the swimmers at one point and looked to be on his way to another Olympic title. However, after the last turn, the German disappeared from the charts.
Lukas Martens ran out of breath, David Popovici took advantage
Journalists from Bild present in La Defense Arena closely followed Martens' progress. He looked exhausted in the last 50 meters. Moreover, after exiting the pool he fell to the ground and needed a few good moments to recover. He was simply wrecked from the effort.
Martens later offered a statement in the mixed zone, where he admitted to pushing too hard in the first part of the race:
"I started way too strong, I was convinced that I would last. Then suddenly my legs and arms were out of sync. Everything hurt, all my muscles were burning. I tried to encourage myself. I told my body that I had to keep level, but he didn't listen to me" , said Lukas Martens.
Lukas Mertens finished fifth at the end of the race and missed out on another medal in Paris. David Popovici won the gold medal, being followed on the podium by the British Matthew Richards and the North American Luke Hobson.
What David Popovici said at the end of the race
David Popovici watched his opponents carefully during the final, thus taking advantage of lane 4, and in the end he struck:
"You come to the Olympics to compete with the best in the world. It's a privilege just to be here.
I just didn't fight for the medal, I managed to win it. It was a dog fight, that's exactly how I describe it. In the last 50 meters, I could see the American was in front of me, I knew that the German was somewhere to my left" , declared the Romanian athlete, at the end of the 200 meters freestyle.
