BULGARIAN Evgenia Radanova won the silver medal in the 500-metre short track race at the Turin Winter Olympic Games on February 15. Radanova marked the time of 44.374 seconds and came in second after Chinas Wang Meng Yang.
Radanova tried hard to win the gold in her final series, but she was pressed between her two Chinese rivals - Wang Meng Yang and Fu Tianyu. Eventually, Fu was disqualified and Canadas Anouk Leblanc-Boucher grabbed the bronze.
This was Radanovas third medal from a Winter Olympic Games, having won silver and bronze medals in 2002 in Salt Lake City.
Radanova also holds the short track world record of 43.671 seconds, unbeaten for the past four years. Radanovas silver medal was the first medal won by Bulgaria in Turin, and Radanovas success justified expectations.
Another Bulgarian hope for a medal at the Olympics was the Nagano 1998 biathlon gold medallist Ekaterina Dafovska, who finished 12th in the womens biathlon 15km individual event on February 13.
Dafovska stopped the clock at 52:45.1 after missing three targets and receiving three minutes additional time as a penalty. Her teammate Irina Nikoultchina registered a time of 54:29.3 and missed six targets for 29th position. The other Bulgarians - Pavlina Filipova and Nina Kadeva - took 44th and 55th places, respectively.
Russian veteran Svetlana Ishmouratova won the womens 15km individual gold medal. The Russian missed only one target and left behind teammate Olga Pyleva.
Bulgaria registered a successful presentation in the mens 10km sprint at the games on February 14. Bulgarian biathlete Vitalii Rudenchik showed a good performance, missing only one target. He took 21st place with a time of 1:47.5. He surpassed famous biathletes, including Michael Greis of Germany, who had won the gold in the mens 20km individual biathlon on February 12.
German biathlete Sven Fischer won his first individual Olympic gold medal for the mens 10km sprint.
In the mens figure skating short programme, Bulgarias Ivan Dinev ranked 15th and succeeded to qualify for the free style, scheduled for February 16. Russias Evgeni Plushenko was first with a score of 90.66. The USs Johnny Weir and Switzerlands Stephane Lambiel followed him. Plushenko laid the foundations for capturing the only gold medal missing from his collection by establishing a commanding 10.66-point lead over Weir at the Winter Olympics on February 14.
