SOFIA, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Bulgaria and Armenia won eight of the 20 categories at this year's European Weightlifting Championships, which ended here on Tuesday evening.

Hosts Bulgaria won the men's 55kg, 61kg, 73kg, and 89kg categories, while Armenian weightlifters were crowned in the woman's 55kg, and men's 67kg, 96kg and +109kg.

Romania, Ukraine and Italy each won two of the categories, and the other titles went to Turkey, Poland, Azerbaijan, Norway, Britain and one individual neutral athlete from Belarus.

The event in Sofia, which kicked off on February 12, was one of the five continental weightlifting championships in February.

"The five championships make up the penultimate round in the Paris 2024 qualifying program which ends with the IWF World Cup in Phuket, Thailand from March 31 to April 11," the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has said.

With nearly 400 entries, the European Championships in Sofia was "by far the biggest of the five," the IWF said.

In total, 120 athletes competing in 10 categories (five for women and five for men) will be allowed to compete at Paris 2024. The highest total result in kilograms achieved by each athlete at qualification events will be counted towards their overall ranking.