Romania's David Popovici beat Britain's Matt Richards by a knife-edge 0.02 of a second to win the men's 200 metres freestyle gold at the Paris Olympics on Monda, Reuters reports. Luke Hobson of the United States took the bronze, 0.07 of a second behind the winner. Popovici, the 2022 world champion in Budapest, won in a time of one minute 44.72 seconds, having been behind until the final 50 in the second race of another raucous evening at the La Defense Arena. Germany's 400 free champion Lukas Maertens led at the first turn, and Popovici dropped to third behind Richards at the 100 mark but was ahead again at 150 and took over at the front as Maertens faded to fifth.