World champions Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski won the title Sportspersons of the Year.

The Bulgarian couple was rewarded for their elegance in a special ceromony at the Military Club in Sofia.

Albena and Maxim scored highest with 2018 points, track-and-filed athlete Vanya Stambolova is second with 745 points.  In Moscow, Stambolova had just shaded world leader, Russian Natalya Nazarova, in the semi-final, using the occasion to bolster her confidence. As she explains, it was a turning point. "My coach scolded me for my attack, but I did it for myself. I had to know whether I could really beat Nazarova It wasn't the final, but beating her gave me a great advantage."

The 22-year-old hails from Varna on the Black Sea Coast, Bulgaria's third largest city and a sporting hub. It was as a hurdler that Stambolova entered the 2005 World Championships, only to bow out in the first round with an undistinguished 58.99. Though she regards herself first and foremost as a hurdler, she entered the flat indoor season and immediately started to produce results.

Radoslav Velikov, world champion in freestyle wrestling ranked third. The organizers from Nove Holding offered a prize of 155,000 leva in total and 30, 000 for sportsperson of the year, 20, 000 for second place and 15,000 for third place respectively. The rest of the sum is distributed between those who ranked between fourth and tenth place.

Taxes on the prizes are covered by Nove Holding.

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