Bulgaria's top athlete Stefka Kostadinova is the new head of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee (BOC).

Kostadinova garnered 42 of the votes at the runoff held at the Friday session of the organization. In the final voting Kostadinova faced another Bulgarian Olympic champion - Svetla Otsetova - who received 38 votes.

/Bulgarian Alpine ski champion Stefan Georgiev (L) and new head of BOC - Stefka Kostadinova (R)/

The participants in the BOC meeting voted secretly earlier on Friday. The candidates for the vacant post besides Kostadinova and Otsetova were Olympic wrestling champ Valentin Yordanov, former Sport Minister Vassil Ivanov, ex sports activist Plamen Krastev and Bulgarian astronaut Alexander Alexandrov. The chief of the Bulgarian Sports Agency and top Bulgarian sportperson Vessela Lecheva was also among the nominees, but she withdrew from the race.

For the first time in the history of the Bulgarian Olympic movement a lady will head the organization. Should Bulgaria pick a lady to head its Olympic Committee it will surely increase the country's chances of having a representative at the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has opined legendary Ukrainian pole vaulter Sergei Bubka while on a visit to Sofia last week.

The BOC chairmanship was left empty after its ex chief Ivan Slavkov was expelled from the International Olympic Movement and lost his seat in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) earlier this year.

The IOC expelled Bulgarian Slavkov in the wake of the BBC "Buying the games" documentary 7 July. 82 members voted in favour of kicking Slavkov out of the elite club, barring him from being chairman of the Bulgarian national Olympic committee.

NOVINITE.COM
11 November 2005, Friday.