Three-time European women's doubles champions Stefani Stoeva and Gabriela Stoeva finished in fifth place in Paris in the third participation in the Olympic Games in his career, BTA reported.
The sisters lost in the quarterfinals to world number one and reigning world champions Qingchen Chen and Yifan Jia (China) 15:21, 8:21 in 42 minutes.
"We fought. . . victory against this opponent, if you look at him from the side, is one in a million. We just didn't succeed, we fought, but they had an answer for everything on the court. They are like machines and today they were many classes above us. We have played them many times, we have only managed to win once. There is certainly respect, but you go out on the court to fight for victory, not to respect your opponents. They just had an answer for everything," said Stefani Stoeva after the match.
"In general, it doesn't matter where the draw sends you, we're used to tough draws, we're used to fighting no matter who. It is a great success for us that we achieved one of our goals and that was getting out of the groups, which we fought for in the last two Olympiads. From here on, we look forward and we are really happy that we were able to show such a level these days in Paris," added her sister Gabriela.
When asked if there will be a next Olympics for them, the two did not give a specific answer.
"We leave it a mystery. Since everyone asks us this question, it remains a mystery and only we know. Everything depends on us. The workload is high enough in the women's doubles discipline, you have to constantly be in top form if you want to survive against such pairs, so it depends on many things whether we continue. Now we have rest and time for our family and loved ones," the sisters said.
The head coach of the national badminton team, Petya Nedelcheva, said that she was satisfied with the fifth place of Gabriela and Stephanie.
The Stoevi sisters were eliminated in the quarterfinals today after losing in two games to the world champions and leaders in the scheme Qingchen Chen and Yifan Jia (China).
"Today I am amazed that the Chinese women were much more experienced than us, they completely controlled the match. We tried to play tactically with the older of the pair (ba. Yifan Jia), but somehow the girls couldn't get into work right from the start of the match. The game did not go well for us. They tried after the first half of the first game to catch up in the score, but it didn't work out. In the second game, we played on the better court, I thought they would take advantage of this situation, but the game just didn't go well", commented Nedelcheva, who is also the personal trainer of Stefani and Gabriela Stoevi.
She is happy with the fulfilled goal of ranking in the top 8 of the Olympic tournament.
"We absolutely fulfilled our goal of entering the eight. This is what we had set ourselves as a task in Bulgaria after the groups came out. The success for us is very big", said Nedelcheva.
She already has fifth places at the Olympics as a competitor from Athens 2004 and now as a coach in Paris.
"This fifth place is a repeat of the success of 20 years ago. Both are sweet because badminton is an Asian sport and being in the top 5 at the Olympics is a very big success for us. The girls are already appreciating it and I hope the future will exceed these successes of ours", said Nedelcheva.
She also honored 18-year-old Kaloyana Nalbantova, who was eliminated in the groups after a win and a loss.
"Kaloyana made a pretty good debut at the Olympics. The other day she played a very serious match against the Frenchwoman. I hope that in the next tournaments that she has coming up for the girls, she will win what she is going for, and next year she will already enter with full strength in the women's, said Nedelcheva.