Tezdzhan Naimova is a Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n sprinter

Sprint (race)

Sprints are short running events in athletics and track and field. Races over short distances are among the oldest running competitions. The first 13 editions of the Ancient Olympic Games featured only one event—the stadion race, which was a race from one end of the stadium to the other...

. She specializes in both the 60

60 metres

60 metres is a sprint event in track and field athletics. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At outdoor venues it is a rare distance, at least for senior athletes...

, 100

100 metres

The 100 metres, or 100-metre dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, it is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896...

 and 200 metres

200 metres

A 200 metres race is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 m track, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques are needed to successfully run the race. A slightly shorter race, called the stadion and run on a straight track, was the first...

.

Junior career

Born in Parvomay

Parvomay

Parvomay is a town and the name of a Municipality in Southern Bulgaria. It is located in Plovdiv Province region close to the towns Sadovo and Chirpan. The English translation is sometimes given as Parvomai or Purvomai...

, Naimova took up athletics at the age of 10 and was initially trained by Tanyo Tanev, but changed to former triple jumper Stoyko Tsonov, who has been her coach since seventh grade. She competed in the 200 metres at the 2004 World Junior Championships

2004 World Junior Championships in Athletics

The 2004 World Junior Championships in Athletics was the 2004 version of the World Junior Championships in Athletics. It was held in Grosseto in Italy.-Men:-Women:-Medals table:-References:*. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2010-06-06....

, but was knocked out in the semi-final.

In 2005 she became the champion of Bulgaria in the 100 and 200 metres (with Ivet Lalova

Ivet Lalova

Ivet Lalova is a Bulgarian athlete who specialises in the 100 metres and 200 metres sprint events. She is the tenth fastest woman in 100 metres history, the fastest white woman in the world, and finished fourth in the 100 metres and fifth in the 200 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Her career...

 absent). She also won a Balkan

Balkans

The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

 60 metres title in the indoors in 2006. She competed at the World Indoor Championships

2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships

The 11th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations was held in Moscow from March 10 to March 12, 2006 in the Olimpiyski Sport arena....

, but was again knocked out in the semi-final. In August, Naimova won two titles at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Athletics

2006 World Junior Championships in Athletics

The 2006 World Junior Championships in Athletics is the 2006 version of the World Junior Championships in Athletics. It was held from 15 August to 20 August at the Chaoyang Sports Center in Beijing, the capital of the People's Republic of China....

 in Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, in the 100 (11.28 seconds) and 200 metres (22.99, a personal best), thus completely dominating the sprint disciplines. Her personal best in the 100 metres that year was 11.23 seconds, achieved in June in Sofia.

Senior career

In the 2007 indoor season she ran the 60 metres in 7.13 seconds in February, a world leading result at the time. That season her time was only beat by Kim Gevaert

Kim Gevaert

Kim Gevaert is a former sprint athlete from Belgium.-Career:Her closest brush with a world title came in running 4/100 of a second behind three-time champion Gail Devers at the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics...

, who won the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships in 7.10 seconds. Naimova finished fifth in the same race. In the summer, she competed at both the 100 and 200 metres at the 2007 World Championships

2007 World Championships in Athletics

The 11th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations , were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007...

. She again reached the semi-finals, but finished fifth there in both events, one place short of reaching the final races. She lowered her personal best times to 11.04 seconds in the 100 metres, achieved in July in Plovdiv; and 22.43 seconds in the 100 metres, achieved in June in Sofia.

The 2008 season was much worse, with season's bests of 11.43 and 23.44 seconds respectively. At the 2008 Summer Olympics

2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...

 in Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

 she only competed in the 100 metres event

Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Women's 100 metres

-Results:All times shown are in seconds. The following abbreviations are used:* Q denotes qualification by place* q denotes qualification by time* PB denotes personal best* SB denotes season best* NR denotes national record...

. In her first round heat she placed fifth in a time of 11.70 which was not enough to advance to the second round. In 2009 it became known that Naimova received a two-year ban from competition from the Bulgarian Athletic Federation, after that body found that she had manipulated the results of an out-of-competition IAAF urine test on 28 June 2008. All results achieved after this date would be stricken, including the Olympic Games participation.