Jokes apart, Popov is serious about winning

As Popov described yesterday on the eve of his most important races since the Olympics a group of his friends “were having fun and may be abused those people who were selling watermelons.

“They started to fight with a friend of mine, and that’s how I got involved,” he added. “A misunderstanding on the street.”

The watermelon vendor never caught retaliated by plunging a knife 15 centimetres into Popov’s stomach, just missing his kidney. His life was probably never in grave danger, but he was hospitalised for 13 days and lost about seven kg that took six months to regain.

“Even when I was stabbed I was still walking around making jokes,” he said. “I didn’t tell anybody at first I was stabbed, I just kept it a secret.

“I was probably in too much shock at the time to realise I could have been killed.”

Clearly, much has changed. The 25-year-old Popov was baptised in an orthodox church shortly after the stabbing, and he married Russian Olympic swimmer Daria Schmeleva on March 26. She’s expecting their first child.

“I feel I have more responsibility now with a wife and I’m trying not to do stupid things,” Popov said. “I’ve got someone to take care of.”

He got back into a pool in November, but his training in earnest began just after the wedding. “After the marriage, I turned my mind just the opposite way and concentrated on my training,” he said. “I knew it was going to be tough. I knew there was going to be a little pain.

“I wasn’t doing enough stretching when I first returned to swim and my stomach where the scar is was getting stiff,” he added.

“When I first started to swim, I felt like I had a rope inside of my stomach… Now I don’t feel anything.”

In June in Santa Clara, California, he clocked his best times of the year (22.78 seconds for 50 metres and 50.30 for 100). That’s down the list of the season’s best times and way short of his 100 world record (48.21) and the 50-metre mark (21.81) held by American Tom Jager.

Popov — the defending 50 and 100 European champion — also suffered a rare defeat, losing to Brazilian Gustavo Borges in a meet in July in Brazil. Jet-lag and a one-day race schedule that saw him compete three times was probably a factor.

“I will pay him (Borges) back, that’s for sure,” Popov joked.In an hour-long interview yesterday, Popov cracked jokes, dangled perfectly timed punch lines, and covered his a face with his hands repeatedly to signal the arrival of another question.

One female reporter asked in great detail about the stab wound.“You want me to take my clothes off…Don’t you?” he replied.A Spanish reporter asked about the steaming 40 degree Centigrade heat in Seville. “The only thing I was missing from my preparation was a sauna and here I am,” he said.