The three-time absolute world champion Maria Petrova was re-elected for the second time in a row as a member of the Artistic Gymnastics Technical Committee. The Bulgarian received 81 votes out of 157 voters, which is the second highest result among the elected members of the committee.
„I want to congratulate all colleagues. Bulgaria to have a president in one of the commissions, and that means a representative in the Executive Committee – it is a great honor for us. I am very happy that I was able to keep my position as vice president, because the struggle in our committee was very, very hard and there were a lot of changes. Two of my colleagues who we expected to stay actually didn't make it. In their place came two representatives of Asia. We have proven that we have the capacity and when we work well, correctly and responsibly in the name of all disciplines in gymnastics, we succeed. This makes us very proud and happy," Maria Petrova shared specially for BNR from Doha.
„There will be new rules in the next Olympic cycle. They are simpler. There will be much less elements, we will emphasize the difficulty with the appliances and with the body. We will give precedence to the purity of execution of all elements. Our goal is for the artistry to have sufficient strength in the final grade. On the occasion of the inclusion of this online refereeing system - I had the opportunity to test it, being the head referee of the World Club Championship. The system is very good. It will help us to control the judges' work more easily, because you can see in real time who gave what as punishment, who reports what, and it will really be of great help to rhythmic gymnastics. One of our tasks in this cycle is to start using this system. I cannot tell you when this will happen - whether in 2025 or 2026. It is almost ready", explained the vice-president of the Bulgarian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation.
„I want to thank all my colleagues who were part of our delegation. I thank Iliana Raeva and Nevyana Vladinova, who were by my side. Together, we were a very, very strong team," concluded Petrova.