Bulgarian swimmer Simona Ivanova remained extremely close to the podium at the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar 2026. The Bulgarian swimmer finished fourth in the 400-meter freestyle final, with only six hundredths of a second missing her from the bronze medal, reports BNT.
Ivanova stopped the clocks at 4:28.43 minutes and showed a strong performance in the race. The Bulgarian was among the medalists for most of the distance, but in the last 25 meters she was unable to maintain her pace and remained outside the top three. The bronze medal went to Belgian Celia Paquet.
The Olympic title in the discipline was won by Elvira Espinosa from Ecuador with a time of 4:22.87 minutes. The silver medal went to Leah Markgraaf from the Republic of South Africa, who finished in 4:26.13 minutes.
For Simona Ivanova, her participation in the Senegalese capital is far from over. The Bulgarian will have two more opportunities to fight for a prize ranking – in the 100-meter freestyle and in her main discipline, the 200-meter freestyle.
However, the swimming program in Dakar is accompanied by serious organizational problems. The water temperature in the pool is too high, which led to the cancellation of the 800-meter freestyle competition, as well as several training sessions in the first days of the competition.
According to the program, Ivanova should start in the 100-meter freestyle on Monday. The other Bulgarian representative in this discipline - Dimitar Dokuzov, will not take part after a decision agreed with his personal coach.