"Success for us would be a bronze medal and a fifth place for the team!" Despa Katelieva, a former prominent contestant and a current sports director of the Bulgarian Gymnastics Federation, made this statement on the opening day, October 18, of the 24th World Gymnastics Championship in the Spanish capital Madrid.

On October 21, the last day of the championship, these expectations were surpassed.

Three teenage girls, Simona Peycheva, Elizabeth Paisieva and Yuliana Naidenova, all from Sofia, brought home three bronze medals and a fourth place team ranking. The best Bulgarian gymnast at the moment, 16-year-old Peycheva, won three bronze medals in the championship on ball, hoop and clubs, and was quite near the bronze in the all-round discipline.

And the youngest among the 160 participants from 46 countries, the 14-year-old Elizabeth Paisieva, demonstrated masterful maturity while achieving seventh place. The "doyenne" - 17-year-old Naidenova - finished 12th, but contributed significantly to the overall fourth position in the team competition.

The championship in Madrid was very strong, even though after Sydney 2000 many of the more famous competitors had retired. The Olympic champion Yulia Barsukova from Russia did not make it to the Spanish capital, nor did Elena Vitrichenko from Ukraine, or France's Eva Serrano (fourth and fifth in Sydney, respectively). Only three gymnasts who had taken part at the Olympics in Australia showed up in Madrid but they were "the heavy artillery" - the bronze medallist in the all-round events and leader of the world rankings, Russia's Alina Kabaeva, sixth in the rankings Tamara Yerofeeva from Ukraine and ninth - Spain's Almudena Cid Tostado. The performance of the Russian debutante Irina Chashchina was awaited with huge interest.

At the last minute the competitors from the U.S., Japan, Mexico and Cuba decided not to take part due to the complicated world situation and this confused the organizers in Madrid who had accepted to host the event only three months before that, after Austria had declined the offer on financial reasons.

The Bulgarians started strongly and after the performance on rope they were placed second. Their total score, though, dropped after their performance on hoop, after which they were third after Russia and Belarus. The Bulgarian team missed the bronze by only 0.525 points, but the fourth position is still a breakthrough after the world championship in Osaka, Japan, where the team ended sixth.

For the second time in her career, Alina Kabaeva became world champion. Irina Chashchina took the silver, and the bronze was taken by Ukraine's Yerofeeva. Bulgaria ranked fourth in the team competition after Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

"Our girls played in a fantastic way and only the interference of the referees put the girls from Belarus ahead, and they performed horribly," said Peycheva's trainer Marietta Dukova.