site.btaLyubomir Epitropov Just 40 Milliseconds Short of Qualifying for Olympic Final in 200m Breaststroke

Lyubomir Epitropov was just 40 milliseconds short on qualifying for the 200m breaststroke final at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday.

The Bulgarian, who last month became the European champion in the discipline, finished ninth in the final standings and recorded his best performance at the Olympics.

He finished fourth in the second semi-final heat with a time of 2:09.93. Epitropov had a very strong final 50m, but fell well short of Australian Joshua Yong's 2:09.89, who finished in eighth place.

Epitropov, 25, came within half a second of his personal best and national record of 2:09.45, which would have been fourth in the semifinals had he been able to match it.

The Bulgarian is participating in his second Olympics after Tokyo 2020, where he also swam the 200m breaststroke semi-final and finished 15th.

Defending champion and world record holder in the discipline Zac Stubblety-Cook (Australia) won the first heat with 2:08.57 seconds, and the fastest in the semi-finals was world champion Leon Marchand of France who triumphed in the second heat with 2:08.11 seconds.