· WORLD sport gymnastics champion Marian Dragulescu of Romania was named top Balkan athlete for 2005 in the 33rd annual poll by Bulgarian news agency BTA.
The poll covered six news agencies from Balkan countries: the Anadolu Agency (Turkey), Romania’s Rompres, TANJUG (Serbia and Montenegro), Greece’s ANA, ATA of Albania, and BTA. This was the sixth time in the history of the poll that the winner was a sports gymnast.
A total of 27 athletes were nominated, representing 15 sports (sports gymnastics, basketball, skiing, weightlifting, rowing, swimming, judo, chess, Greco-Roman wrestling, free-style wrestling, football, water polo, boxing, tennis, sumo).
Attending the ceremony at which BTA director-general Maxim Minchev announced the result were Vessela Lecheva, chairperson of the State Agency of Youth and Sports, representatives of diplomatic missions of the Balkan countries to Bulgaria, including Romanian ambassador Mihail Rosianu, Bulgarian and foreign journalists.

·  SIXTEEN Bulgarian sports people received the traditional Sports Icarus awards given by the Bulgarian Sport Foundation for impressive achievements during the year.
The awards were presented for a 14th year in a row. The laureates were chosen by a 12-member public jury including Bulgarian sports and cultural figures as well as sports journalists.
Bulgaria’s best athletes of 2005 received, in total, prize money of 500 000 leva, which was handed over by State Agency of Youth and Sports chairperson Vessela Lecheva.
Lecheva told the winners: “We must do more for you”. She promised that conditions would be created to enable Bulgaria’s sports people to achieve further successes.
Among those who received awards were top shooters Maria Grozdeva and Tanyu Kiryakov, wrestler Armen Nazaryan, swimmer Peter Stoytchev, and rhythmic gymnast Simona Peycheva.

·  TOP Bulgarian sprinter Ivet Lalova was named Athlete of the Year at a ceremony in Sofia on December 19.
Lalova broke her right leg this summer while warming up for a sprint in Greece. Now recovering from surgery, she is expected to be able to compete again before summer 2006.
The award, organised by the Bulgarian Athletics Federation and sponsored by Euroins, was handed to Lalova by Stefka Kostadinova, president of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee.