Champion Staviski convicted of drunk-driving death

World ice dance champion Maxim Staviski was given a suspended two-and-a-half year jail sentence by a Bulgarian court this week after a drunk-driving crash that killed a man and left a young woman in a coma.

Staviski, who pleaded guilty, was also stripped of his driving licence for four years and ordered to pay 283,030 levs ($214,400) in fines and damages.

He was charged in November over the death of 24-year-old amateur boxer Petar Petrov. Staviski was over the alcohol limit when his Jeep collided with two other vehicles near the Black Sea town of Primorsko in August.

Prosecutor Angel Georgiev had demanded a two to 2-1/2 year jail sentence and said there were no mitigating circumstances. He is considering an appeal against the sentence.

"I sincerely regret what happened and I accept ultimate responsibility," the 30-year-old Staviski told a court in Burgas in which he expressed his condolences to Petrov's relatives.

Staviski, one of the most popular athletes in Bulgaria, and his partner Albena Denkova claimed the Balkan country's first world title in Calgary in 2006.