The youngest BH competitor in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, 17-year-old swimmer Mihajlo Ceprkalo, won the second place in the discipline 1,500 meter freestyle.
Our representative competed in the first qualifying group together with other six swimmers. His competition were: Wesley Roberts (Cook Islands), Matt Hutchins (New Zealand), Oussama Mellouli (Tunisia), Welson Sim (Malaysia) and Felipe Tapia (Chile).
First place won Oussama Mellouli from Tunisia with the time 15:07:78. The second was Ceprkalo with the time 15:31:62, and third place went to Matt Hutchins from Australia with the time 15:32:60.
Mellouli justified the role of favorite in this group, because this 32-year-old athlete won the gold in this discipline in 2008 in Beijing and bronze in London in 2012.
Young swimmer from Banja Luka did not manage to break the national record with this time. This result will not be enough to qualify for the finals, but it was clear even before his performance that the finals would be a real sensation considering times of other competitors in this discipline and the fact that Ceprkalo is the second youngest competitor in this discipline. Winning the second place in this group deserves sincere congratulations.
Ceprkalo came at the Olympic Games with 42nd best time out of 46 that will compete in the discipline 1,500 meter freestyle. He came at the Olympics with a time 15: 26:22 which is our national record.
There are a total of six qualifying groups in which are distributed a total of 46 competitors. The best 8 competitors will qualify for the finals. The finals are scheduled on the night from Saturday to Sunday.
(Source: O. T./Klix.ba)
