Yordan Mitkov (Bulgaria) Wins the European Championships in Varna
History in Color:
May 23, 1979, Varna, Bulgaria – 23-year old middleweight Yordan Mitkov of Asenovgrad, Bulgaria wins a gold medal in the 75kg class at the 1979 European Championships in Varna.
Yordan Mitkov (born in 1956) was an Olympic champion from Team Bulgaria. He won the gold in the 75kg weight class at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Besides his Olympics title, also won a gold (1976) and a silver (1975) medal at the World Championships, and a gold (1979), silver (1975) and bronze (1976) medals at the European championships and a Bulgarian national title in 1979.
At the 1979 European Championships in Varna, Bulgaria won the first place in the team competitions with the Soviet Union and East Germany on the second and third places respectively. In the middle weight, Bulgaria was represented by Yordan Mitkov and Nedelcho Kolev. Mitkov won gold medals in both the snatch and cj lifts with a gold total of 345kg (155+190). Kolev was a silver medalist with a 337.5kg (150 + 187.5).
In his career, Yordan Mitkov managed to set 4 world records including his last world record (197kg in cj) set five months before the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.