Career
Two years later in Zagreb, Croatia he doubled up, winning gold medals in both the C-4 500m and 1000m. He then moved from his hometown club of Constructorul Hunedoara to Romania"s premier club Dinamo Bucharest. Romania has great strength in depth in the Canadian canoe events and Popa had to wait until 2005 to be selected to represent his country at a major senior championship.
He also competed in the C-4 1000m race, winning a bronze medal.
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 he again reached the final, finishing sixth.