BULGARIAN ice skating duo Albena Denkova and Maksim Staviski achieved yet another brilliant success in their sports career, being awarded their first silver medal in world figure skating championships.
They proved at the World Figure Skating Championships 2004 in Germany that Bulgarian sports players are as good as any, and it seemed only due to jury prejudice or bad luck that they did not actually get the gold medal.
Denkova-Staviski received two 6.0s for presentation for their fast-moving performance to Handel's suite No. 4 in D-Minor, Bulgarian news agency BTA said. Their marks varied from 5.7 and two 5.9s for technique, and 5.7 and 6.0 for presentation.
In February, Denkova and Staviski came second in the final rating of the European Figure Skating Championships, hosted in Budapest.
Denkova and Staviski have been a team since 1996 when her partner Hristo Nikolov retired.
Denkova is an economist and was a gymnast before becoming a skater. She is 30 years old and Staviski, born in Rostov-on-Don in Russia, is 26 but has Bulgarian citizenship.
In 2002 they came fifth in the world championships, sixth in the European championships and seventh in the Salt Lake City Olympics. Another series of impressive successes followed in 2003 when they came out third in the world championships in Washington. This year also brought them their second European title, in Budapest.
They were third after the compulsory and the original dance, Denkova and Staviski were rated second best in the free dance and consequently won the silver medals, repeating their achievement in Malmo, Sweden, last year.
Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov of Russia beat the Bulgarian ice-skating pair at the championship in Germany.
Staviski came to Bulgaria to be partner for Denkova eight years ago and since then their partnership have given birth to a sports school called Dancing on Ice Denkova/Staviski. However, they moved to Russia in 2000 to train in Odintsovo, near Moscow. One of their ambitions is victory in the winter Olympics in 2006.
They proved at the World Figure Skating Championships 2004 in Germany that Bulgarian sports players are as good as any, and it seemed only due to jury prejudice or bad luck that they did not actually get the gold medal.
Denkova-Staviski received two 6.0s for presentation for their fast-moving performance to Handel's suite No. 4 in D-Minor, Bulgarian news agency BTA said. Their marks varied from 5.7 and two 5.9s for technique, and 5.7 and 6.0 for presentation.
In February, Denkova and Staviski came second in the final rating of the European Figure Skating Championships, hosted in Budapest.
Denkova and Staviski have been a team since 1996 when her partner Hristo Nikolov retired.
Denkova is an economist and was a gymnast before becoming a skater. She is 30 years old and Staviski, born in Rostov-on-Don in Russia, is 26 but has Bulgarian citizenship.
In 2002 they came fifth in the world championships, sixth in the European championships and seventh in the Salt Lake City Olympics. Another series of impressive successes followed in 2003 when they came out third in the world championships in Washington. This year also brought them their second European title, in Budapest.
They were third after the compulsory and the original dance, Denkova and Staviski were rated second best in the free dance and consequently won the silver medals, repeating their achievement in Malmo, Sweden, last year.
Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov of Russia beat the Bulgarian ice-skating pair at the championship in Germany.
Staviski came to Bulgaria to be partner for Denkova eight years ago and since then their partnership have given birth to a sports school called Dancing on Ice Denkova/Staviski. However, they moved to Russia in 2000 to train in Odintsovo, near Moscow. One of their ambitions is victory in the winter Olympics in 2006.
