Following 18 years of waiting the Bulgarian team in rhythmic gymnastics has won the gold in the group all-around event at the World Championships in Izmir, Turkey. The team led by Coach Ina Ananieva performed without a single mistake their two routines – with three balls and two ribbons and with five pairs of clubs. After the long-awaited gold in the all-around, the girls also snatched the silver in three balls and two ribbons and regained the crown of the leading group team worldwide.

Reneta Kamberova, Michaela Maevski-Velitchkova, Tsvetelina Naidenova,Tsvetelina Stoyanova and ChristianaTodorova - these are the names of the world champions. Bulgaria has been waiting for this success for nearly 18 years.The last time the Bulgarian rhythmic gymnastics group team won the gold medal was at the1996 World Cup in Budapest. The title from Izmir is the tenth gold medal for this country in the group competition - following1969, 1971, 1981-89, 1995 and 1996.

In one of her first interviews after the success the national coach of the group team Ina Ananieva said that the basis of winning gold medals had been the fact that her athletes had presented much different routines than the rest of the participants."We are very excited and happy. We knew that sooner or later we would get what we deserved. From the moment I started working with the group team, my main goal at every single competition was a medal from the all-around, because it is the crown in the event. I am glad that we achieved that at the latest World Cup because the girls showed very stable performance throughout the year, at all competitions without any exceptions," said Ananieva.

Behind every success there is, of course, a lot of work, a combination of many qualities, mental and physical tenacity, and a well-planned training schedule.In Izmir,all this worked coherently at a most crucial moment. "There were representatives of countries who told us, ‘Finally, you're back on top’," said coach Ina Ananieva.

And Bulgaria is finally back to the top,where it stood for many years in the era of the Golden Girls. Iliana Raeva, Dilyana Georgieva, Lily Ignatova, Adriana Dunavska all trained by legendary coach Neshka Robeva won all possible trophies back in the 1980s and 1990s.There was talk of the Bulgarian School in rhythmic gymnastics. After a long spell of stagnation not only in gymnastics, but across the whole range of professional sport the beauties of Bulgaria have regained the crown in a most feminine sport. Let us wish them to remain there for long.

English: Daniela Konstantinova