Baku has hosted a press conference of the Organizing Committee of the First European games.
The Baku 2015 chief operating officer, Simon Clegg, said this 17-day festival of sport was "a historic moment for the European Games." "We had to overcome many difficulties along the way, but I cannot say what will happen with the Games. The most important thing is to hear the opinions of the athletes. And the athletes took away from Azerbaijan not only fantastic impressions of this country, but also experience of competition at the highest level. And if athletes want to come back and participate in the European Games again, I'm sure we'll give them this opportunity. I am sure that in the future the European Games will be very successful. And Baku has played a very important role in the emergence of these events in the international calendar," he stressed.
"During these 17 days we have seen the friendship and solidarity of the European countries. We demonstrated Azerbaijan to the whole world as a beautiful country.The ceremony also showed Europe’s closeness to Baku and Baku’s closeness to Europe," Azerbaijani Youth and Sports Minister, Azad Rahimov, said, speaking at the press conference.
"We performed well in wrestling, boxing, gymnastics, triathlon, badminton," the head of the department said.
The minister noted with satisfaction that the Azerbaijani athletes achieved great success at the Games. "Our team performed triumphantly. No one could think that Azerbaijan will take the second place in the unofficial team standings. The president also awarded the athletes," Rahimov said.
"The rumors that weak competitors were participating were not true. Weak athletes don't beat world records. The strongest athletes participated in 12 kinds of sports which were qualifying. In addition, more than 100 Olympic champions and world champions participated in the European Games," the minister stressed.
The number of fans who watched the Games indicates that "the interest in sport in the country is very high," he added.
"Some 1248 media representatives were accredited to cover the European Games. Some 665 of them are local journalists, 583 – foreign. Some 4859 people attended the i-zone (press zone) daily. Some 61 TV channels from 45 countries broadcast the games. The opening ceremony was broadcast in 120 countries, allowing to 820 million viewers around the world to watch the broadcast of the competition," the head of the ministry noted.
"17 thousand volunteers were involved in the Games. 5 thousand of them worked at the opening and closing ceremonies," Azad Rahimov concluded.
