Two Bulgarian wrestlers won gold medals at the 2007 Wrestling World Championship in Azerbaijan. Yavor Yanakiev emerged as a surprising winner in the Greco-Roman 74kg category and defending champion Stanka Zlateva won her second straight gold in the women’s freestyle 72kg category. The championships also served as a qualifying event for the Beijing Olympics and five Bulgarians won visas.

In his first appearance at the top level, 22-year-old Yanakiev from Stara Zagora became the 54th Bulgarian world champion in wrestling history. Yavor defeated Mark Madsen of Denmark 2-0 (3:0, 3:0) in the final match. The organisers failed to play the Bulgarian national anthem as searches for the disc gave no results. The deputy youth and sport minister of Azerbaijan explained that according to the rules, the participant state should present the state anthem and flag to the organiser, so it seemed the Bulgarian team was also surprised by Yanakiev’s triumph.

“To be honest, I didn’t even expected to win a medal let alone the gold one,” the champion said. “I came here to compete for an Olympic visa - that was my main goal. During the tournament I started to believe I was capable of winning something. Beating Roman Melyoshin of Kazakhstan in the semi-finals gave me the confidence that I can become a champion.”

It was double or nothing for Stanka Zlateva, invincible since 2006. The 24-year-old from the village of Krushare won two European titles and now added a second World title during this two-year spell. She won the final 2-0 (3:0, 3:0), beating two-times world champion Kristie Marano from the US. Before that Zlateva defeated Olympic Champion Wang of China in the semi-finals, Zhanibekova of Kazakhstan in the quarter-finals, five-times world champion Kyoko Hamaguchi of Japan in the 1/8-finals and Bentorki of France in the qualifiers.

Zlateva said the match against Kyoko Hamaguchi was most difficult and the victory gave her an Olympic visa as well as confidence. “I still hold a lot of respect because Hamaguchi was number one for years but after that victory it would have been a shame not to win the gold medal. With a pair of European and World titles in the last two years, it is only the Olympic gold that left to dream for.”

The Wrestling World Championship attracted 850 of the world’s top wrestlers, from more than 100 countries, to Azerbaijan’s capital.