bulgarian 80's pro ironman

i saw this guy sleeping on the fairyboat, he had an athens marathon tshirt and isostar water bottle so i guessed he might be into endurance. i was dyeing of boredom on the boat so i when i saw that he is awake i went to him to talk. he is bulgarian, i understood his name is vasko or something like that, he spoke some serbian. he said he used to do ironman races in late 80s and that he swam 45mins and raun 2:30 something marathon (in ironman fastest 3:05), and that his best time in im race was 8:20. than he started coaching and gave that up since there was no money in bulgaria for triathlon. he complained that in communism there was money for everything and now it only goes into football. now he is 54 and he was visiting the island as a tourist. his last triathlon was in belgrade, first year there was drafting allowed. i guess belgrade triathlon has that effect on people.