Спорт

For the fourth consecutive time our town welcomed the triathlon competitors in the now traditional tournament for the Velingrad Cup. The hosts from PK Belmeken, together with the Bulgarian Triathlon Federation (BFT) and the Municipality of Velingrad, tried to organize the competition in the best way, which was held on July 1. The idea is that this tournament will be held already on this date and in the future.

This year about 60 competitors in different age groups participated, representatives of 5 sports clubs from Sofia, Blagoevgrad, Pleven, Banya, Karlovo and Velingrad. This tournament was not attended by representatives from Plovdiv and the region who boycott the currently legitimate BFT represented by its chairman Emil Stoynev. The boycott is the result of attempts by a group of people who want to register another triathlon federation. In their attempts to oppose, they use for their purposes the triathlonists from the Plovdiv clubs "Sokol" and "Triathlon", as well as from the Asenovgrad "Titan". The swarming of federations is unlikely to benefit the Bulgarian triathlon. Mayor Dr. Dafov opened the race, which started about an hour late because of the heavy rain that poured before the start. This somewhat confused the organizers, but they dealt with the problem quickly and the race went on level again. The following results were obtained in different age groups: In boys up to 10 years old. with distances of 100 m swimming, 3 km cycling and 1 km running beat Atanas Nikolov from SC "Triathlete" (c. Bath). In the girls of the same age, Teodora Gesheva from Triathlete SC (Banya village), followed by the two Velingrad women from Belmeken PK Kristiana Burdina and Bojana Durova. For boys under 12, who competed in 100 m swimming, 5 km cycling and 1 km running, the fastest was Ivan Ivanov SC "Triathlete". At the same distances, but in 14-year-old adolescents ml. age first place was taken by Alexander Vutev from SC "Borislav Dokov" (Pleven). The competition in girls ml. age was won by Karina Dragolova from SC "Sofia", followed by the contestant of PK "Belmeken" - Ventsislava Lekina. In adolescents, st. age new success was achieved by Velingradite Yasen Yankov from Belmeken PC, who became the first at 400 m swimming, 10 km cycling and 2 km running. Full helmet achieved the girls st. age of PC "Belmeken" Gergana Angelova, Maria Gecheva and Desislava Glaveeva, who occupied all three prize places. For young people up to 19 years old. beat Yonko Kamburov from SC Triathlete. In the interesting finals in men and women superiority had the representatives of SC "Sofia". In men's first was Atanas Zlatkov, who overcame 750 m swimming, 20 km cycling and 5 km cross in 57.15 min. Immediately after him finished the former competitor of PK Belmeken and current of SC Sofia Georgi Popov, who came second with a time of 57.35 min. In women, the fastest passed the three disciplines of the triathlon Verzhiniya Dumcheva from SC "Sofia". The winners of both men and women received the traditional Velingrad Cups, sweetened with a bottle of sparkling champagne. All winners were awarded by the Mayor of Velingrad Dr. Dafov. They received medals for I, II and III place, specially made by the Municipality of Velingrad. The triathlonists from the 3rd prizes received cash bonuses, and one of the sponsors, the company Sofiaplast, gave out advertising jerseys to all competitors. The other traditional sponsors of the BFT are Indesit and the mineral water producers Gorna Banya. Once again for the excellent organization of the triathlon tournament contributed PK Belmeken in the face of V. Kleshkov and the judges along the route, Municipality of Velingrad in the person of Todor Bozev, head of the Sports and Tourism Department, OP Sports Properties and Beaches and the actions of the employees of the Regional Police Station - Velingrad under the direction of Mr. Yankulov, who provided order and security along the entire route of the competition.