First Business Leaders Olympics - The New Champions

Impressive athleticism, contagious enthusiasm and fierce competition marked the first BBLF Business Leaders Olympics, organized by BBLF with the general sponsorship of AstraZeneca and the kind support of Schenker, Nokia Bulgaria and M3 Communications Group.

Business strife and passion to win translated themselves to the sports pitch in 15 different disciplines: football, basketballs, volleyball, tennis, air gun shooting, swimming, biking, darts, and more. Hence, comparing the BBLF Olympics to those in Athens this year and to Euro 2004, came only natural to VIP Guest, Parliamentary Chairman Mr. Ognyan Gerdgikov.

BBLF and AstraZeneca also used the occasion to launch their joint HEAL Partnership Project - Healthy Eating, Active Living - aiming to unite in a useful cooperation the private and the public sectors to counteract the disturbing growth in obesity caused illnesses.

Food, beverages and sunny weather were mixed in perfect proportions, and high spirits ruled throughout the hot June afternoon. Of the nearly 200 people present at the Olympics (some competing, some just chilling out), many felt victorious and none losers.

Here is who triumphed: the football pitch was dominated by Corporation Development; Schenker ruled on the basketball field and in the spirit of utmost sportsmanship gave prizes to their runners-up; a mixed team won at volleyball, including Ventsislav Tanev (AIMS Human Capital), Nina Simeonova (Junior Achievement Bulgaria), Ani Gantcheva (Nokia Bulgaria), and Elitsa Barakova (BCAF); Roumen and Maya Mihaylov beat them all at tennis; Vladimir Afenliev of Actavis was undefeatable at table tennis; the fastest biker was Jean Keup (Opet/Aygaz);  the fastest swimmers - Kristian Zahariev (Benatov & Partners) and Eva Paunova (Astra Zeneca); most accurate at air gun shooting proved to be Milen Minchev (Astra Zeneca); Petko Belyashki (Prima-Soft) outsmarted his rivals at chess, and Asparouh Karastoyanov (Aspolikaras) tricked them all at backgammon.