The best Bulgarian athletes received again recognition for their achievements at a ceremony entitled Athlete of 2012, held in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia.

The Bulgarian boxers Kubrat Pulev and Tervel Pulev were again present in the inquiry. Over the last few years they have been constantly climbing the rankings and in 2012, they have occupied the 1 and 2 place of this traditional ranking. Tervel Pulev won one of the 2 medals at the London 2012 Olympics- a bronze medal in the 91 kilograms category at the male boxing tournament. The votes he collected from the journalists who participated in the inquiry secured him the 2nd place in the ranking.

His elder brother Kubrat Pulev, who won in 2012 the IBF International Heavyweight title, became Bulgaria’s athlete of 2012. Representatives of the IBF announced that “Kobrata” will face in 2013 Wladimir Klitschko(Ukraine) in a match for the world heavy weight title. Before the match with Klitschko Pulev may play one more match. Pulev promised to work even harder to popularize Bulgaria on the international sports stage, which was interpreted as a serious threat to his future rivals.

The best Bulgarian female wrestler Stanka Zlateva continued with her successful performance in 2012. She won silver medal for Bulgaria at the London 2012 Olympics in London and occupied the prestigious 3rd place in the annual Athlete of the Year rankings.

The Bulgarian female athlete Ivet Lalova placed 4th after she won in 2012 the European title at the 100 meter sprint event at the European Athletics Championship. Lalova was very happy with her award, saying that she was struggling for 7 years to win a European gold medal at this forum, where she stopped the clock at 11.28 seconds.

The world female chess vice-champion Antoaneta Stefanova who lost the final for the world trophy against Anna Ushenina(Ukraine) placed 5th. The Bulgarian male tennis player Grigor Dimitrov who was awarded the best Bulgarian male tennis player of 2012 occupied the 6th place in the rankings. Dimitrov will finish 2012 in the top 50 of the ATP world tennis rankings.

The Bulgarian living legend in sports gymnastics Yordan Yovchev placed 7th in the rankings after his successful Olympic performance, where occupied the 7th place at the rings combination final in London. This was his record 6th appearance at Olympic Games.

The Bulgarian marathon swimmer Petar Stoychev who became in 2012 European champion at the 25 kilometer swimming marathon tournament placed 8th at the annual rankings.

The top 10 was completed by the best female tennis player Tsvetana Pironkova and the distributor of the Bulgarian volleyball team Georgi Bratoev, who was very close to winning a bronze medal at the London 2012 Olympic volleyball tournament.

Stela Eneva was voted the best Bulgarian Paralympic athlete of 2012 after winning 2 silver medals at the London Paralympics this year in the shot-put and discus throw contests. Mihail Takov who coaches the Bulgarian boxing team was voted the best coach of 2012. 

The Bulgarian sports fans will expect great victories from the athletes in 2013, so we can wished them good luck and lots of medals.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov