The national U18 girls' volleyball team won the 'Team of Bulgaria' award for youth in 2024, and its coach Antonina Zetova is the best coach in the 13th edition of the 'Best Young Athlete' ranking byViasport.bgand Free Media Group.
The girls, led by the legend of Bulgarian women's volleyball, who is now also the coach of the women's national team, won the European title at the championship for this age group in Romania and Greece. Our team achieved a total of 7 victories and suffered only one loss on their way to gold. In the semifinals, they beat Italy, and in the final - Belgium with 3:0 sets! Zetova's team brought Bulgaria its first U18 girls' title in the history of Bulgarian volleyball and the first across all age groups after 42 years. For the last time, Bulgarian representatives had played in a final in 1982.
Here are the names of the volleyball players who won the title: Dimana Ivanova, Stefani Dyankova, Simona Ivanova, Darina Naneva, Denitsa Angelova, Bozhidara Ivanova, Viktoria Ninova, Maria-Magdalena Nedyalkova, Vyara Parapunova, Gabriela Zhekova, Kalina Veneva, Elisaveta Sarieva, Nikol Okoro, Edna Todorova.
They received their trophy at the ceremony at "Sveti Georgi" Private School from the executive director of the Bulgarian Sports Totalizer Georgi Tarlekov and the vice-president of the federation David Davidov. The team's setter Dimana Ivanova, who became MVP and #1 in her position at the European Championship, was ranked #8 in the Golden Ten.
Antonina Zetova was awarded by the Mayor of Sofia, Vasil Terziev. She became the fourth volleyball coach to win the award in the ranking byViasport.bgafter Viktor Karagyozov (2022), Martin Stoev (2021 and 2019), and Dragan Ivanov (2015).
The #1 team trophy is the sixth for volleyball, following those in 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018, and 2015, and the second in the women's category after 2018.
Top 10 ranking for 2024
1. Valentina Georgieva (artistic gymnastics) – 748 pts.
2. Radina Velichkova (athletics) – 579
3. Nikola Tsolov (motorsport) – 512
4. Kaloyana Nalbantova (badminton) – 379
5. Simeon Nikolov (volleyball) – 311
6. Emma Neykova (fencing) – 249
7. Maksim Manolov (swimming) – 216
8. Dimana Ivanova (volleyball) – 202
9. Iva Ivanova (tennis) – 194
10. Aleksandar Gavalyugov (basketball) – 164
