Bulgarian track and field short-distance runner, Vanya Stambolova, won a bronze medal at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar. The Bulgarian runner returned to the track last year, after a penalty imposed on her in January 2007, when was suspended from competitions for two years over the use of doping.
Stambolova showed she has a confirmed place among the best runners in the world after her strong run in the 400-meter event reaching her season’s best time of 51.50 seconds. Stambolova’s result ranked her third, after Russia’s Tatyana Firova, who took silver in a personal best time of 51.13.The gold went to the American Debbie Dunn, who ran the distance in 51.04 seconds. Stambolova’s bronze is the first medal for Bulgaria in Doha.
Bulgaria’s second hope for medals in Doha, sprinter Ivet Lalova, could not qualify for the 60-meter finals. Bulgaria’s best sprinter finished 6th in the second semifinal heat, running the distance in 7.41 seconds.
Several other Bulgarian athletes competing in Doha could not qualify for the finals, including Bulgaria’s best triple jumpers Momchil Karaliev and Petya Dacheva, pole vaulter Spas Buhalov, and long jumper Nikolay Atanasov, and high jumper Venelina Veneva.
Bulgarian Silvia Miteva won the bronze in the hoop finals at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Cup in Portimao, Portugal. The best Bulgarian gymnast finished fifth in the ribbon and sixth in the rope and ball finals. Olympic and world champion Envgenia Kanaeva from Russia took the gold in rope, ribbon and ball, and Russian Darya Kondakova won the title in hoop and came second in rope.
In the groups’ finals, Bulgaria’s team played very well in the 5 hoops routine, but was left fourth, although the Russian team dropped an apparatus out of the carpet, still it was placed third by the judges. The team of Belarus took the gold, and the silver went to the Italian team.
Getting to football,
The team of Litex (Lovech) outplayed the team of Levski (Sofia) with 3:0 in the match from the 18th round of the A Football Group. The goal-scorers from Litex were Doha, Ivelin Popov and Hristo Yanev. The new players in the “blue” team Petrash and Georgi Sarmov were given two yellow cards and will miss the next match of the team.
The team of CSKA (Sofia) had an easy victory over the visiting team of Sportist (Svoge) with 4:1 but still could not come ahead of Litex FC in the temporary standings. Litex is the temporary leader in the championship with 41 points followed by CSKA (Sofia) with 38 points and Lokomotiv (Sofia) with 37 points.
The Turkish winter resort of Erzurum is the venue of the Cross-country Skiing Balkan Cup – 10 km classic and free style for men, and 5 km for women. Bulgarian skier Veselin Tsinzov took the silver in both styles in the men’s events. Bulgarian skier Antonia Grigorova also took the silver in classic and freestyle in the women’s events. The third place in women’s freestyle went to another Bulgarian skier – Teodora Malcheva. Romanin skier Monika Gyurge, who is 28, took the gold in both events.
We finish with some news from the world of chess.
In the European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship in Rijeka, Croatia, Bulgarian chess player Antoaneta Stefanova took 26th place, after the 7th round with a score of 5.5 points. In a game of the 7th round, Antoaneta Stefanova drew with Latvian Victoria Chmilite. In the same round, Bulgarian chess player Adriana Nikolova drew with Sona Petrova from the Czech Republic, and Iva Videnova lost to Russian Bayra Kovanova.
In the men’s events, the former coach of the Bulgarian national team Kiril Georgiev finished with a draw with the white figures against Swedish Emmanuel Berg, and Bulgarian Alexander Delchev ended his match against the famous Spanish GM Francisco Vallejo Pons with a draw.
Translated by: Rossitsa Petcova
