site.btaStiliana Nikolova Wins All-Around Bronze

Bulgaria's Stiliana Nikolova won the bronze medal in the individual all-around  final at the 2022 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Sofia on Saturday. She thus earned a quota for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The 17-year-old made a remarkable world debut in the women's division. In addition to the all-around bronze, she reaped three silver medals in the apparatus finals, at hoop, clubs and ribbon, respectively.

Nikolova's achievement in the all-around event is the first world individual all-around medal for Bulgaria since as far back as 2001, when Simona Peicheva won the silver in Madrid.

At Sunday's all-around final, Nikolova earned 128.800 points (33.450 at hoop, 32.600 at ball, 32.600 at clubs and 30.150 at ribbon). After the Bulgarian delegation challenged three of the initial scores awarded to her, two of them were revised up.

Sofia Raffaeli won the first world all-around title for Italy on a score of 133.250 points (33.800 at hoop, 34.250 at ball, 32.250 at clubs and 32.950 at ribbon). This added up to a total of five medals for Raffaeli at the 2022 World Championships. The all-around silver went to Darja Varfolomeev of Germany, who scored 132.450 points.

Raffaeli, Varfolomeev and Nikolova are the three gymnasts to have earned individual Olympic quotas from Sofia.

Youth and Sports Minister Vesela Lecheva congratulated Nikolova on her all-around bronze, describing it as a "great success". Noting that Nikolova won the medal and an Olympic quota at such a young age, Lecheva wrote that the gymnast's performance was met with a standing ovation from the audience in Arena Armeec. "The future is yours!" the Minister wrote.