SOFIA – Bulgaria is sending 95 athletes to the Sydney Olympics in September and hopes to match the medal haul from Atlanta four years ago.

‘We expect about 14 medals from the Games, mainly from weightlifting, athletics, boxing, wrestling and shooting,’ sports director of the Bulgarian Olympic Commitee Pavel Shtarbanov said on Wednesday.

He did not say how many golds were expected. Bulgaria won 15 medals in 1996, of which three were gold.

Shtarbanov said all the weightlifting team – eight men and four women – would be potential medallists.

The shooting team of two men and four women, led by world champion Vesela Lecheva, should also do well.

Other medal hopes were Dmitry Usagin in boxing and wrestlers Serafim Barzakov in free style, Sergei Mureiko and Armen Nazaryan in Greco-Roman. Nazaryan was Olympic champion for Armenia in 1996 but he now competes for Bulgaria.

Bulgaria expects to win four to five medals in athletics with triple jumpers Rostislav Dimitrov and Iva Prandzheva as the main favourites.

The 1996 Olympic women’s high jump champion Stefka Kostadinova will be deputy leader of the Bulgarian delegation.

Reuters

Source: SOCOG olympics.com