Bulgarian Swimmer Petar Stoychev Earns Olympic Berth

Petar Stoychev made a brilliant performance at the FINA Olympic Marathon Swimming qualifier, finishing third in 1:45:34.1. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's best swimmer Petar Stoychev earned a berth to London 2012 with a bronze medal finish Sunday in the men's 10-kilometre race at the FINA Olympic Marathon Swimming qualifier.

Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli won the gold medal in one hour 45 minutes 18.5 seconds. Canadian Richard Weinberger followed in 1:45:30.2 and Petar Stoychev was third in 1:45:34.1.

This will be the second time that Petar Stoychev will compete in the Olympic marathon swimming. In the previous games in Beijing in 2008 he finished 6th.

But this will be Stoychev's  fourth participation in Olympic games. In Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 respectively, he swam in the 400 meters and 1500 meters contests.

The other Bulgarian swimmer Ventsislav Aidarski finished 29th and failed to win an Olympic nomination.

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