Eighth International Workers' Sports Festival
Between June 9th and June 13th, 2010, the Eighth International Workers’ Sports Festival was organized and carried out in Albena resort by Bulgarian Workers’ Federation with the active assistance and financial support of the Ministry of Physical Education and Sports, Eurobank EFG, Armeec Insurance Company JSC and Citroen Bulgaria.
The festival went off under the aegis of Prof. Dr. Zhelyazko Hristov, President of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) and President of the Organizing Committee of the Festival.
In 2010 Bulgarian Workers’ Federation fetes 20 years since it’s establishment and 110 years of workers’ sports movement in the republic of Bulgaria.
The Festival gathered together 84 sports clubs with almost 1900 participants from Republic of Bulgaria and 19 countries from Europe, Asia and Africa, namely Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Turkey, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, France, Finland, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Israel, China, Tunisia and Algeria. The participants in the Festival competed in 16 kinds of sports: mini football, beach football, volleyball, beach volleyball, bowling, tennis, table tennis, chess, bridge, basketball (streetball), darts, track and field athletics, swimming, tug of war, shooting with air gun and petanque.
The first place in the complex ranking by nations was taken by the team of NPP Kozloduy with 115 points, followed by ATOM-SPORT (Russia) with 87 points. The third place was taken by the team of Belarus Workers’ Union with 42 points.
In the complex ranking for the Cup of CITUB the first place was taken by the team of Electric Power System Operator with 44 points, followed by Maritsa East 2 TPP with 42 points and Shumen Municipality with 35 points.
High opinion of the good organization and carrying out of the Festival was expressed by Mr. Lubomir Vassilev – Secretary General of the Ministry of Physical Education and Sports and Mr. Harald Bauer – President of the International Confederation for Workers’ Sport (CSIT), who witnessed the opening and closing ceremonies of the Festival and personally awarded the winners. Mr. Bauer personally presented Mr. Kostadin Parzulov (President of Bulgarian Workers’ Federation “Labor, sport and health”) with a CSIT gold plaque of merit for his special merit and contribution for the development and popularization of sports activity among working people.