The women’s team of Lokomotiv NN won the title in the state water polo championship for the fourth time in a row. At the “Park Arena OZK” swimming pool in Burgas, the team, led by Vasil Nanov and Andrey Sushkov, triumphed with the gold medals, after first winning the semi-final against Arena Burgas with 24:6. In the other semi-final, the Botev 2000 team with head coach Venetka Nacheva prevailed against Chernomorets with 16:7.
Thus, the decisive matches for the distribution of medals pitted the champion Lokomotiv NN against Botev 2000 in the final and the Burgas Arena and Chernomorets in the match for 3rd-4th place. It is curious that this was a repeat of the matches of the same phase in the women’s championship last season in Varna, where both matches ended with the same winners, who won now in Burgas.
First, in the bronze medal match, Arena (coach Svetozar Vladkov) managed to successfully resist Chernomorets only in the first quarter, which they won 2:1. Then, the girls from Chernomorets under Petar Yonov imposed their superiority to finally win 16:5.
In the title final, we witnessed something unforgettable in Bulgarian women’s water polo at least in the last 10, and probably more years. The very ambitious and mobilized rivals clung to a strong press all over the court and thus conducted the entire match. A game of press all over the court is extremely exhausting, especially for a full match between women from start to finish and requires very good preparation. The match was marked by both the quick attacks of Lokomotiv NN and the very tough fight in every corner of the pool, which drained the strength of both teams to the last.
It turned out that Lokomotiv NN had more important trump cards and deservedly triumphed. In practice, the result had only one equalizer – at 1:1 right at the beginning, after which the new old champion constantly controlled the development of the match. After the second half, the team from the capital had a 4-goal lead – 8:4, and the last signal came at 17:10 for Lokomotiv NN.
The gold medals of the champions were presented by Dimitar Nikolov – Mayor of Burgas, the silver medals of Botev 2000 were presented by Darius Danovski, Chairman of the Bulgarian Football Union, and the bronze medals of Chernomorets were presented by Svoboda Mihaylova, Member of the Bulgarian Football Union Board.
Final standings
Lokomotiv NN
Botev 2000
Chernomorets
Arena Burgas
Individual awards
Goal scorer – Anna Gesheva, Lokomotiv NN
Best striker – Mihaela Naneva, Lokomotiv NN
Best goalkeeper – Helena Hristova, Botev 2000
Best defender – Stefani Parvanova, Arena Burgas
Most valuable player – Yoana Miteva, Chernomorets
