Persson swam in the finish of 2.02.18 and improved his own Swedish record of 2.02.39 from 2019. He was 0.11 after the Russian Mikhail Doriniov who was third at 2.02.07.
Belarusian Ilya Shymanovich won in 2.01.73.
- I am happy with the time but had hoped to fight for the medals.
It's a bit sour at the same time as I'm happy to have broken a personal record, says Persson.
The starting field was almost in class with a World Cup final.
"Wanted to be a tenth faster"
- It was a very strong starting field and I managed two fast swims but I had wanted to be a few hundredths or a tenth faster and got on the podium but it's just to drive on.
The Russian Kirill Prigoda has the world record of 2.00.16 from 2018.
- It was a fantastic race and he could not have done much more.
It feels a bit awkward to miss a medal when you are so close to the world record, that it would be so in this particular branch, says expert Lars Frölander about Persson's efforts.
MORE SWIMMING: Here Sarah Sjöström swims home her third European Championship gold (November 6, 2021)
Javascript is disabled
Javascript must be turned on to play video
Read more about browser support
The browser is not supported
SVT does not support playback in your browser.
We therefore recommend that you switch to another browser.
Read more about browser support
Sarah Sjöström has taken her second European Championship gold in Kazan.
Photo: Bildbyrån