Make room Katinka Hosszu, another Eastern European swimmer has joined the double-digit club. This week at the 2014 Bulgarian National Championship meet, Nina Rangelova won 10 gold medals in 10 swims over four days – a triumphant return after four years absent from the long course version of this meet.
She capped her weekend off by picking up titles in the last two events of the meet on Sunday. That started with the 50 free, where a 26.38 won by a full second ahead of 16-year old Gabriela Georgieva (27.38).
Rangelova continues to lead a lot of youth in the Bulgarian women’s ranks. That’s youth maybe not driven as much by an influx of talent as it is a lack of motivation for older swimmers to continue competing domestically, but she was the oldest finisher in the top 9 by four years; that includes Diana Petkova, who was 4th in the 50 free in 27.96 and was born in the year 2000 – only 14 years old.
Rangelova’s influence, and perhaps her path to training in the United States within the NCAA system, could provide a beacon for some of these young swimmers to develop a little more before hanging up their goggles, because the talent definitely seems to exist.
In the next race, and the last race of the meet, Rangelova anchored the Mladost mixed 400 medley relay to a resounding 4:09.11 victory – four seconds ahead of the next closest team from Etar. Rangelova anchored her relay in 54.98 to bring them from a five second deficit for the victory.
Aside from Rangelova, the most noteworthy swim on the last day of the meet came from Bojidar Stoev in the men’s 50 free, where he won in a new lifetime best of 23.35. That improves his own best from last year’s meet by half-a-second, and the teenager is creeping ever closer to finally crack the 1988 National Record of 22.94 held by Tsvetan Golomeev in the event.
Pony Up!