Skopje, 4 September 2026 (MIA) - The 8 September State Awards for achievements in sport in 2026 were presented Friday at a ceremony in Parliament, honoring outstanding achievements and contributions to the development and promotion of Macedonian sport.

This year’s recipients are Dimcho Angelov (wrestling), Aco Krstov (wrestling), Dejan Angelovski (athletics), and Angel Micevski-Skakar (wrestling), while the lifetime achievement award went to Trajcho Dimkov (wrestling).

Sports Minister Borko Ristovski, speaking at the ceremony in Parliament, stressed that the 8 September award carries special symbolism because it is named after the country’s Independence Day.

“There are sporting achievements that remain recorded in the statistics, but there are also people whose results, character and work become part of a country’s collective memory. We are here today precisely because of such people. People who have won, created champions, built generations of athletes and carried the name of Macedonia when all they had behind them were their hard work, discipline and belief that they could succeed,” Ristovski said.

Ristovski congratulated this year’s recipients, noting that behind their awards are decades of work, training, competitions, sacrifices, victories and defeats, as well as a major contribution to nurturing new generations of Macedonian athletes.

Lifetime achievement award recipient Trajcho Dimkov thanked the organizers for the recognition and reflected on his decades-long career in wrestling.

“My greatest pride is that today many coaches, referees and sports professionals come from our wrestling school,” said Dimkov, who has been active in sport for nearly half a century.

The 8 September State Award is being presented for 14th time this year. According to the organizers, nine nominations were submitted for the award, along with six proposals for the lifetime achievement award. The recipients are selected by a 13-member State Award Board comprising prominent sports professionals and professors in the field of sport.

Photo: MIA