Georgi Pavlov was elected president of the Bulgarian Athletics Federation and said that he was unpleasantly surprised by the way today's reporting and election general meeting took place, BTA reported.
However, he expressed hope that the passions will calm down and soon everyone will work only for the good of Bulgarian athletics.
"I am extremely surprised by the unpleasant atmosphere in which this general meeting took place. Something like this has not happened in athletics for 30 years. I was extremely unpleasant about the euphoria of some people and their passion, and everything ended for them with the point of choosing a new leadership. They left the meeting, although three points remained for discussion and voting, which were very important for the future of athletics. This showed that these people were there only for positions and benefits. I hope that after we sleep tonight, passions will calm down and we will all continue to work for athletics and we will all be friends again. I also extend a hand to all those who voted against me“, commented the new president of the Bulgarian Athletics Federation Georgi Pavlov.
Until now, he was the first vice-president of the federation. Pavlov was also the long-time president of the AK “Pavel Pavlov“ and organizer of the tournament of the same name, which is the last Bulgarian international tournament with a European Athletics rank.
The meeting, which lasted two and a half hours, was chaired by the President of European Athletics Dobromir Karamarinov. 121 out of a total of 126 clubs, members of the Bulgarian Athletics Federation, participated in it, with 44 of them being represented by proxy.
The meeting adopted a report on the activities of the federation, a financial report and approved the new Board of Directors with 73 votes "for". It includes three new members - the director of the "Pirogov" hospital; Dr. Valentin Dimitrov, businessman Borislav Trifonov and the head of the "Athletics" department at the National Athletics Association Grigor Gutev. The remaining members of the new Board of Directors retain their positions. These are Georgi Pavlov, Dobromir Karamarinov, Rumen Panchev and Rumen Yonkov.
Among the decisions adopted by the General Assembly was the delegation of rights to the Management Board to study the option of joining the Association of Bulgarian Sports Federations.
After the end of the General Assembly, the Management Board met for its first meeting, and according to the statute, it had to elect the new president. Georgi Pavlov was confirmed in the post for a 5-year term. He replaces Ivan Kolev, who was elected to the position on October 11, 2023 in place of Dobromir Karamarinov, who resigned due to his commitments to the European Federation, in order to complete his term.