Weightlifting, Bulgaria's most successful sport, has been seriously ill recently, much of its sickness coming from a loss of its best talent to other countries.

At the world weightlifting championships in Antalya, Turkey, which finished on Sunday, Bulgaria did not manage to register its regular success. Even though Gulubin Boevski won a title in the up to 69kg category and Stefan Georgiev won a bronze medal in the up to 62kg category, the Bulgarian male national team finished third after Russia and Turkey.

This was not, however, Bulgaria's weakest performance over the last 10 years - at the world championships in 1995 the team left without a gold medal, and at the championship in 1999, the result was similar to the one in Antalya.

As a whole, this year's world championships were comparatively weak, which is normal for a post-Olympic year. The best contestants in the various categories - champions and medallists from the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and the last world championships in Athens in 1999 - simply did not attend the event, and others were in somewhat unsatisfactory shape.

Only three world records were achieved - by Turkey's Halil Mutlu in the up to 56kg category for lifting 138.5kg, by Belarus' Genadii Oleshchuk in the up to 62kg category for lifting 181kg, and Russia's Vladimir Smorchkov in the up to 105.5kg event for lifting 198kg.

"Weightlifting has not been progressing for a long time, small weights are being lifted. I do not want to give an estimate of the championship before it has finished, but I expect it to be quite weak," said Ivan Abadjiev, perhaps one of the biggest authorities in the world of weightlifting. He added that apart from the absence of the majority of Olympic and world champions, the teams of the U.S., Japan, Finland, Ireland and England did not take part either.

According to the organizers of the tournament, a total of 22 countries refused to participate.

Bulgaria again counted on some familiar faces from past years despite the fact that most of them were in poor shape. The absence of young, ambitious lifters became quite obvious. A month before the championship, the new senior coach, Plamen Asparuhov, had at his disposal a total of nine possible participants from which he had to form an eight-member team.

The situation in Bulgarian weightlifting deteriorated in mid-October after a deal with Qatar where seven elite weightlifters were sold - Valentin Sarov (69kg), Andrei Ivanov (77kg), Angel Popov (up to 105kg), Yani Marchokov (over 105kg), Petar Tanev (77kg), Georgi Markov (77kg) and Lyubcho Kovachev (56kg). Zlatin Ivanov also joined the Qatar team as an official coach.

Former Bulgarian coach Abadjiev is also in Qatar training his compatriots.

The Bulgarian presence could still be felt in many places in Antalya. Seven Turkish weightlifters were born and grew up in Bulgaria, among them the renowned heavy weightlifter Halil Mutlu, who used to compete for Bulgaria under the name Huben Hubenov.

Nikolai Peshalov represented Croatia at the event, a country that he already has an Olympic and European title for. The former coach of the Bulgarian national team, Yordan Ivanov, was at the event as a senior coach for Egypt. Another Bulgarian expert, Ivan Ganev, is the coach of Nigeria, while Gancho Karushkov is the Columbian coach. Yoto Yotov, who recently took Croatian citizenship, appeared as the coach of two Dutchmen.

The team from Qatar was the only one which won two gold medals at the championships - by Bulgarians Andrei Ivanov in the category of up to 77kg and Yani Marchokov in the over 105kg category, who competed with the names Abbas Nadur and Saeed Salem Jaber respectively. Those representing Qatar receive $70,000 for a gold medal, whereas a bonus in Bulgaria is a fraction of that amount.

The Bulgarian female team finished in 20th place.