Sport fans in this country are excited these days not only about the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, but also about the FIVB World League. That is volleyball. Coach Silvano Prandi’s boys are doing more than well – Bulgaria won over the Dutch hosts by 3:0 during the weekend in both matches from “A” group. Matey Kaziyski, Todor Aleksiev and captain Vladimir Nikolov were again unbeatable in both attack and blockade. At the same time the serve problems that led to both losses against Brazil were finally overcome. Those two matches in the Netherlands were the last ones for the Bulgarians in the group as guests. The balance now is a really good one – four true wins against South Korea and the Netherlands with no game lost, after two expected losses against the world champ Brazil. Thus our team is second in Group “A”, only one victory away from the leader Brazil, right before the forthcoming matches in the Bulgarian town of Varna. Winners qualify for the finals of the World League, along with the best teams among the second ones in the groups. The next matches of the Bulgarians against South Korea will take place in Varna on June 26th and 27th.
Our female national volleyball team also gladdened its fans with a success. Bulgaria won over hosting Great Britain twice by 3:0 in the second round of the European Volleyball League’s group phase. Matches against the strong Serbian and Romanian teams are yet to come in the group. The Bulgarian team finished third in the 2009 first edition of the League.
Bulgarian track and field competitors took 10 medals at the European Team Championship in Malta. Ivet Lalova was first in the 100 m sprint with 11.48 seconds. Triple jump competitor Andriana Bunova also became a winner with 13.52 m. The experienced Venelina Veneva and Magdalena Hristova didn’t give a chance to their younger rivals and finished first in the high jump and respectively long jump. 36-year old vet Veneva won with a first attempt of 189 cm. She then tried to jump over 192 cm three times unsuccessfully. Georgi Ivanov also became a champ in the shot put discipline with 18.86 m. Silver medals were won by Teodora Kolarova in the 800 m running, Monika Gachevska in the 400 m and Tsvetelina Kirilova in the 400 m hurdles. Martin Vasilev in the hammer throw and Lazar Katuchev in the 400 m men’s hurdle took the third places.
Young Bulgarian grandmaster Ivan Cheparinov won a prestigious victory in the 4th edition of the “Rui Lopez” chess festival in the Spanish town of Extremadura. This was Cheparinov’s second in a row year of triumph at the prestigious fest, where 8 players participated. The Bulgarian competitor finished with 6 points out of 7 possible, thus signing in for the fifth edition of the fest in 2011. The 23-year old Cheparinov also had a tremendous success at a rapid chess competition within the same tournament with 52 participants. Both the Bulgarian player and the Italian Fabiano Caruana ended up with 7.5 points out of 9 possible and Mr. Caruana won only thanks to his better additional indicators.
Two football transfers at the end of today’s edition of Sports Roundup:
Bulgarian Martin Petrov will most likely play for Bolton Wanderers FC since the beginning of the next season, English media inform. The player has already negotiated his contract and now he expects only the medical exams in order the transfer to be finalized. Mr. Petrov has been healing a knee injury for several months now and these troubles stopped him from proving his qualities in his current club Manchester City. Everton, Aston Villa and West Ham United had also been interested in Martin Petrov, but he obviously chose Bolton’s offer as a better one.
Another Bulgarian national football team player, Valeri Bojinov is expected to sign soon a contract with Italian Parma. According to the Apennine media his transfer from Manchester City is worth EUR 4 mln. Mr. Bozhinov will sign for 5 seasons with an annual salary of EUR 800 000. Genoa, Sevilla and Zenith /St. Petersburg/ were also interested in the striker, but he preferred to stay in Parma.
English version: Zhivko Stanchev
