site.btaUPDATED Olympic Shooting Medalist Vesela lecheva Elected Bulgarian Olympic Committee President

Olympic shooting medalist Vesela Lecheva was elected on Bulgarian Olympic Committee President on Wednesday after a secret ballot. She bested world high jump champion Stefka Kostadinova, the previous BOC head, by 48:33 votes.

A total of 83 delegates at the Bulgarian Olympic Committee General Assembly voted, while Ivan Lebanov, Georgi Gergov and Valentin Yordanov were not present, the election commission said. However, two of the votes were invalid. Representatives of 47 sports federations, seven sports organizations and 29 individual members took part in the vote.

In the speeches of the presidential candidates to the delegates, Kostadinova underlined the successes achieved by Bulgarian athletes at the recent Olympic Games in Tokyo and Paris, while Lecheva stressed the need for changes so that Bulgarian sport does not lag behind the latest global trends.

At the beginning of the forum the delegates observed a minute of silence in memory of the recently deceased two-time Olympic weightlifting champion Norair Nurikian, sports journalist Petar Vasilev and the victims of the fire in Kocani in the Republic of North Macedonia.

Lecheva said she would rely heavily on the heads of the federations to make things run more smoothly and praised the new Minister of Youth and Sports, Ivan Peshev, who she said "listens to everyone".

"I think new energy and new ideas are always welcome. I have always said that you have to build on the things already achieved, but continuity comes first. What I think has been good and has brought positive results will remain in our programme and as an Olympic Committee activity. The new things that I think are extremely important as programmes and that I can support the federations with are related to innovation and new technologies. It will be aimed on supporting coaches and athletes in their training and retraining."

She added that she would look to synchronize BOC's work with that of the International Olympic Committee, adding she would propose changes to the BOC statutes to bring them as close as possible to that of the IOC.

"I look forward to tomorrow's election of the new president of the International Olympic Committee. Our job is to be communicative and to work together with the international structures and with all IOC members to be in sync and to have one cause. Certainly, mandating is a good alternative and an opportunity because that is what the IOC has adopted as a policy. I think I will propose some structural changes at the next General Assembly."