Bulgarian Olympic Glory – Rowing

published on 1/31/12 12:52 PM

Syika Kelbecheva and Stoyanka Gruycheva won one of the two first Olympic gold medals for Bulgaria's rowing in Montreal, 1976

Photo: bgolympic.org

Although the history of rowing dates back centuries ago, its history as a competitive sport expands over the past 200 years. Interest towards rowing increased with the start of the rowing competitions between the Oxford and Cambridge universities in 1829. Rowing debuted at the modern Olympic Games in Paris in 1900. At that time children used to cox for the teams and that is why the youngest Olympic champion was 12-years-old. Since the games in Paris, rowing has remained in the programmes of all Olympic forums.

Bulgarian rowers debuted at Olympic Games in 1968 in Mexico. There Atanas Zhelev and Yordan Vulchev finished 4th in a double scull, thus winning the first Olympic points for this country. The first major Olympic success in the sport for Bulgaria came in 1976 in Montreal. Zdravka Yordanova and Svetla Otsetova then won gold medals in a double scull. Stoyanka Gruicheva and Siyka Kelbelcheva also won the title. The coxed four of Maria Modeva, Reni Yordanova, Liliana Vaseva, Ginka Gyurova, and Kapka Panayotova won a silver medla. For the first time Bulgarian male rowers won an Olympic medal at the Games in Moscow in 1980. It was a bronze in men's quadruple sculls. In women’s quadruple sculls Ani Bakova, Rumeliana Boncheva, Dolores Nakova, and Mariana Serbezova brought another bronze for the country. Stoyanka Gruicheva and Siyka Kelbelcheva this time missed the title and remained third. Among the coxed fours Nadya Filipova, Ginka Gyurova, Mariika Modeva, Rita Todorova and Iskra Velinova won silver medals. After the 1984 boycott of the games, Bulgarian successes continued at the games in South Korea in 1988, when Lalka Berberova and Radka Stoyanova won silver medals. Magdalena Georgieva won a bronze medal in a single scull, while Stefka Madina and Violeta Ninova finished 3rd in a double scull.

Mincho Nikolov, Bogdan Dobrev, Ivo Russev and Lyubomir Petrov won the first medal in men's rowing - bronze, at the Loscow Olympics in 1980

After the games in South Korea the next Bulgarian Olympic success in rowing came in 2000 in Australia, when Rumyana Neikova won a silver medal in a single scull. Neikova remained second after Ekaterina Karsten from Belarus but judges had to decide the result using photo finish records. In Athens in 2004 Neikova won a bronze medal. In Greece Ivo Yanakiev also won a bronze medal. At the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 Rumyana Neikova triumphed with the gold. This was her fifth Olympic participation and she has collected all three types of Olympic medals. In her career she has won a number of medals for Bulgaria, as well as two world titles.

Rumyana Neykova is so far Ba's most successful Bulgarian rower with one bronze, one silver and one gold medal from three consecutive Olympic games

Rumyana Neikova denied the possibility to return to the games in London in 2012 and Bulgaria will have to count on younger athletes. Olympic qualifications that can bring quotas for the Bulgarian rowers are still to come. The popularity of this sport in the UK will surely bring a lot of positive emotions to spectators and participants at the Olympic Games in 2012.

По публикацията работи: Alexander Markov

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Bulgarian Olympic Glory – Rowing

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