Loredan Popa
Loredan Popa, (15 July 1980, Vaslui, Romania) is a Romanian flatwater canoeist and current (2005) World and European champion in the Canadian canoe C-4 500m event. Popa's first international title came in 2000 as a member of the Romania crew that won the C-4 1000m and C-4 500 m gold medal at the European under-23 championship in Boulogne, France. In 2002 in Zagreb, Croatia, Popa won gold medals in both the C-4 500m and 1000m events. In the C-2 final in Zagreb, he partnered with his brother Constantin and took the bronze medal . He then moved from his hometown club of Constructorul Hunedoara in Hunedoara, Romania to Romania's premier club Dinamo Bucharest. In 2005, Popa was selected to represent Romania at a major senior championship. In Poznań, Poland. He won the European championship in his first attempt as a member of the C-4 500m crew, with Florin Popescu, Silviu Simioncencu and Josif Chirilă. Popa also competed in the C-4 1000m race, winning a bronze medal. In August 2005, Popa's crew won the World Championship C-4 500m title. Popa was the only man to be selected to race over  all three C-4 distances. In the 1000m event, he came close to winning another gold medal but in a tight finish Romania were just edged out by Poland and he had to settle for a silver medal. In the 200m, Popa again reached the final, finishing sixth. In 2006, Popa won his second consecutive C-4 500m title at the 2006 Canoe Sprint European Championships in Račice, Czech Republic.