In 1967, she won the 100 m title at the Spartakiad and was third in the 200 m at the 1967 European Cup. She was also a double relay gold medalist for the Soviet Union at the 1967 European Indoor Games. She won another gold in the swedish medley relay at the 1968 European Indoor Games. It was in this year that she had her greatest success with the Soviet relay team as she and her team mates set a new world record of 43.9 seconds for the 4×100 m relay at the Soviet championships then improved it further to 43.6 seconds at the athletics test event prior to the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. A team comprising Popkova, Lyudmila Zharkova, Galina Bukharina and Lyudmila Samotyosova ran even faster in the Olympic final, clocking 43.41 seconds, yet this was only enough for the bronze as teams from both the United States and Cuba also went under the previous world record mark. Popkova also represented her country in the 200 m event and was narrowly eliminated in the semi-finals after finishing fifth.