Romania's David Popovici broke the men's 100m freestyle world record by winning gold at the European Championships in Rome on Saturday.

The 17-year-old double world champion swam 46.86sec to slice 0.05sec off the old mark set by Brazilian Cesar Cielo in the same pool at the 2009 World Championships in the era of buoyant body suits.

Hungary's Kristof Milak was second on Saturday with Italy's Alessandro Miressi third.