We start with the Winter Olympic games that are to begin on Friday in Vancouver, Canada. During an official ceremony, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov gave the Bulgarian national banner to flag bearer Alexandra Zhekova (snowboard). Bulgarian Sport Minister Svilen Neikov and head of the National Olympic Committee, Stefka Kostadinova, were also present at the ceremony that took place in the Presidency. Bulgarian snowboard star Alexandra Zhekova is in good shape this season. Zhekova finished 5th at the bordercross competition of the 14th edition of the Winter X Games in Aspen.
Bulgaria was handed a challenging qualification draw for the 2012 European Football Championship in Poland and Ukraine. Bulgaria is in Group 7 together with the teams of England, Switzerland, Wales, and Montenegro. The manager of the Bulgarian national team, Stanimir Stoilov, said he preferred Bulgaria to play against England and Switzerland immediately after the end of the World Cup Championship in South Africa, in which the two teams are to take part.
The schedule for the matches in the qualifications, which are to start in September, will be discussed at a meeting in Zurich on March 15.
Bulgarian football clubs continue their preparation for the spring season of the national championship. Bulgaria’s current champion, Levski, lost 0:3 to Moldavian club Sheriff, Tiraspol. CSKA were held to a 0:0 draw by the team of Spartak, Moscow. The Bulgarian team of Slavia lost 0:1 against Terek, Grozny. The team of Locomotive Sofia lost 2:3 against Steaua, Bucharest in a match that was affected by bad meteorological conditions. In Turkey, Bulgarian Litex reached 1:1 draw against Romanian Timisoara FC.
Bulgarian athletes Petya Dacheva (triple jump) and Inna Evtimova (sprint) have qualified for the World Indoor Athletics Championship in Doha. During the traditional Akademik tournament in Sofia the two won in their disciplines with results of 14.17 m for Dacheva and 7.30 seconds for Evtimova. 200 athletes from 7 countries took part in the tournament.
In a crucial match in Group 1 of the Africa/Europe zone of the Fed Cup women’s competition, Bulgaria won 2:0 against the hosts from Portugal after successful games by Tsvetana Pironkova and Dia Evtimova. The Bulgarian success means the country will be included in the same group of the tournament next year. The Bulgarian men were not so successful. Tennis players Tihomir Grozdanov, Valentin Dimov, and Todor Enev dropped from the second round of the Davis Cup tournament in the Israeli town of Eilat with a prize of 10,000 USD.
English: Alexander Markov
