By Vestnik Kavkaza
Yesterday the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships opened in Moscow. The competitions began the day before with men’s qualification rounds. Women’s qualification starts today. Tomorrow all-round finals will take place, while finals in certain disciplines will take place on Saturday and Sunday.
Ahead of the championships, Vestnik Kavkaza interviewed officials of Russian and world gymnastics on the prospects of the Caucasian gymnasts. Larisa Latynina, a 9-time Olympic champion, Honorary USSR Sports Master (1956) and Honorary USSR Coach (1972), promised to state her opinion on Azerbaijani athletes after their performance at the competitions. She said that she had good ties with Azerbaijan. “I won the USSR Cup in Baku in 1955 and I was happy. These were major competitions and I had many rivals, such as Tamara Manina, Polina Astakhova and Sonya Muratova. The competitions were very tough, and I associate the fact that I won with the Azerbaijani land, even though I was a bit disappointed that the constant wind ruined my hairdo. Later they told me: “Baku is windy!” the Soviet gymnast said.
Andrey Rodionenko, chief coach of the Russian national artistic gymnastics team, praised Azerbaijan’s success in the sports: “The fact that they are presented in all disciplines means a lot.” As for the current prospects of Azerbaijanis in Moscow, Rodionenko points out that they are working with Anatoly Yarmovsky, who is a professional coach.
The Armenians, according to Rodionenko, have an outstanding athlete on the “horse.” As for the Turkish team, the chief coach of the Russian team said that they are “pretty girls”: “They used to be small, then grew up and now take part in the European Championships.” At the same time, Rodionenko emphasized that only those who work as hard as Russia could be rivals to the Russian athletes.
Vasily Titov, Vice President of the International Gymnastics Federation, expressed confidence that Azerbaijani gymnasts will achieve great results among the 50 states taking part in the games. Titov made special mention of Farid Gaibov, Secretary General of the Azerbaijani National Federation of Gymnastics and member of the International Federation of Gymnastics. He believes that Azerbaijan’s first lady Mehriban Aliyeva has contributed a lot to the achievements of the country in artistic gymnastics.
