The Bulgarian men's 4 x 200m freestyle swimmers achieved a historic ranking at the world championships in small pool swimming. In Melbourne, Petar Mitsin, Kaloyan Bratanov, Antani Ivanov and Yordan Yanchev became eighth.

For the first time, Bulgaria reached the final in the discipline. In it, the Bulgarian swimmers finished in 6:59.12 min. All the time they competed with Canada for seventh place, but did not manage to achieve it.

The USA team won the gold medals with a world record - 6:44.12 min. Australia (6:46.54 min) and Italy (6:49.63 min) entered the top three.

The Bulgarians secured their record ranking already by entering the final. In the series, they finished in 6:56.42 minutes, which significantly improved the previous national record of 7:15.85 minutes, set on December 14, 2018 in Hangzhou, China.

"This relay was special for all the sites, media and people who said that for the first time in four years I won't swim in a world championship final and underestimated both the guys in the team and me. Pour yourself a rakia and don't comment on a sport you don't understand. I want you to explode with anger, because you cannot be happy that the people who are here glorify a small Bulgaria with a population of 7 million," wrote the experienced Ivanov after securing a place in the final.

"I may not have had the best year, which was certainly helped by many people in Bulgaria in one way or another, but I have not been happier and prouder in my career as a swimmer. Have a nice day, haters," added the swimmer, for whom this is the seventh participation in the world championship.

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