Adil Huseynzadeh: "Mikhail Malkin one of world tumbling leaders"

Azerbaijan and Baku Trampoline Gymnastics and Tumbling Championships opened at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku yesterday. On the sidelines of competitions, the coach of the Azerbaijan trampoline national team, the personal trainer of the leader of the national team Mikhail Malkin, Adil Huseynzade, told Vestnik Kavkaza about the prospects of the republic in this sports.

- Adil muallim, first of all, how do you assess Mikhail Malkin's tumbling skills for today?

- Mikhail has trained since he was five, he changed many coaches, at least eight, I myself work with him for slightly more than two years. He has a very great potential. This year he won several medals: silver at the World Cup in Baku, gold at the World Cup in Portugal and bronze at the World Cup in Spain. And he improves his skills every month, so before his trip to Sofia for the youth championship he was its clear favorite, there was no other opinion - he had to win. The complexity and purity of his performance were the best. His only rival was a Russian, but only even if Mikhail made at least one mistake, which did not happen - and he won another gold medal".

- How do referees treat Mikhail Malkin at competitions?

- When you are present at competitions, you see that everybody loves him, he is loved all over the world, from Canada and the US to New Zealand. Everyone sees him as a potential winner, perhaps at any competition. The medals of this year are not his limit, because, perhaps, he has the highest complexity of exercises today, which is also not his limit. In training, His raining exercises are much more difficult. I understand that the main rivals - Russia, China, Denmark - also have a reserve and can improve it, but at least for today Mikhail is one of the constant contenders for medals.

- Does it mean that Azerbaijan will set the tone for tumbling?

- It's too early to talk about it. The fact is that Mikhail is an obvious leader, but we do not have a reserve, we do not have comparable tumbling athlets. A number of our athletes left sports early and quit performing. At the same time, we have a good young generation. Our gymnasts of 11-12 years old performed the same tournament in Sofia, and there are very good children who have a better program than other have. For example, the complexity of Adil Hajizade's exercises was the highest at this age, others also had quite high complexity. However, in my opinion, we were harshly refereed, perhaps, those referees did not know Azerbaijan's tumbling, and saw our gymnasts for the first time. At the same time, all the referees and participants of the tournament spoke very good of them, they said that the guys did well. So, we have talented children, and I hope, their skills will improve. In addition, look at them, they just rush into the battle, they fear nothing, very feisty guys. I am proud of them and I hope our points at the next competitions we will be better.

- How would you rate Mikhail Malkin's performance at the tournament in Sofia?

- He performed, probably, at 10% of his abilities. The fact is that there is a limit to complexity at  junior competitions. Even if you flip over 8 times, you will not get more points because of the limit. For example, Mikhail has stunts worth 6.3 points, but even if he performs, he will receive only 4 points at such a tournament. Athlets are restrained so that they do not get hurt. And Mikhail has a great potential, he should take medals at the European Championship. If he makes his best, he will win.