Skopje, 8 September 2020 (MIA) – The “September 8” state award for lifetime achievement and top accomplishment in the field of sports were presented Thursday at a ceremony on the occasion of Independence Day. This year’s recipients of the state award include Olivera Nakovska-Bikova Branimir Jovanovski, Shaban Trstena and Dejan Georgievski. President Stevo Pendarovski presented the lifetime achievement award to Olivera Nakovska-Bikova for her outstanding, rich and successful sports career in paralympic and sport archery. She is Macedonian paralympian and sports shooter who won the gold medal in the women's 10 metre air pistol SH1 at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, England. Branimir Jovanovski was presented with state award for the outstanding results in his 20-year sports career. He is the first Macedonian Paralympian who won a gold medal in a Paralympics. His huge success as a coach and as a selector is significant, and he was chosen as the best coach of the Macedonian national team in para-archery. The other winner of the “September 8” state award is Shaban Trstena, freestyle wrestler. Trstena won the gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and also won the silver medal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. Trstena is currently the youngest to win any wrestling gold at the Olympics, being 19 years of age at the Los Angeles Olympics. He has been pronounced the Best Macedonian athlete many times and once, in 1984 the best athlete of Yugoslavia. In 2000 he has been also pronounced the best Albanian athlete of the last century. And the fourth recipient of the state award is Dejan Georgievski, who is professional taekwondo practitioner who represents North Macedonia internationally in the World Taekwondo Tournaments in the men's heavyweight (+87 kg) class. He is an Olympic silver medalist in the men's +80 kg event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The award ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski, Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi, Deputy PM for Economic Affairs Fatmir Bytyqi, ministers Oliver Spasovski, Ljupco Nikolovski and other government officials. “This award will be an impetus for further success,” Nakovska-Bikova said. Being honored to receive the “September 8” state award, Branimir Jovanovski pointed out that tomorrow marks 30 years since he won the gold medal in Barcelona in 1992, adding “All medals bring honor and cause a surge of emotions.” “I am proud of the fact that I gave my best, for 20 years to fight with the most elite athletes from big countries and I showed that a small nation can, a small country can beat big countries,” Shaban Trstena, freestyle wrestler said congratulating the country’s Independence Day. Congratulating the Independence Day to all citizens in the country, Dejan Georgievski said that the silver medal at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo is a credit to his coaches Borche and Darko Kostovski, to his club mates, to his family and to the God.