Skopje, 7 September 2024 (MIA) — Sports professional, coach and Taekwondo Federation of Macedonia president Borche Kostovski received the 2024 September 8 national award for a lifetime achievement in sports and dedicated it to his father and the entire "honest working class," he said at the awards ceremony in Parliament earlier on Saturday.

Kostovski's greatest achievement has been coaching Olympic medalist Dejan Georgievski, who won the silver medal in Taekwondo at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, organizers said.

Receiving the award, Kostovski said nothing was impossible for those who dared.

"We dared to conquer the Olympic norm, to look our strongest opponents in the eye and defeat them. We dared to reach the final of the Olympic Games, which resulted in a silver medal next to our flag," Kostovski said.

The September 8 national award committee also presented awards to Mirko Dimchevski, Ramadan Shabani, Zoran Boshkovski and Dimitar Jovanov, in recognition of their sports achievements.

Minister of Sports and Youth Borko Ristovski encouraged more athletes to apply for the national award.

"I would like to say that this is just an incentive to have even more entries next year so our state and ministry can award even more prizes," Ristovski said.

"As a ministry, we will always be on the side of athletes and sports professionals. These awards you are receiving are a huge honor but also a huge responsibility. Display them with pride and dignity and be worthy representatives of Macedonian society," the sports minister said. mr/