The Azerbaijani national boxing team achieved its goal at the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku - it took the first place, the head coach of the national team Leonid Lainsky and senior trainer Nariman Abdullayev told the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza.
"We consider our performance as a very good one. The guys were great in the ring, they had the appropriate training. As a result our boxers took the gold medal," Nariman Abdullayev noted in the first place.
Leonid Lainsky stressed that it was not easy to win at the Islamic Solidarity Games. "The boxing is developed in every country, and it's getting harder to win. We were training here in Baku and Gabala, together with the teams of Ukraine and Kazakhstan. We performed here in the international tournament 'Silk Road', at the competitions in Bulgaria and at the championship of Azerbaijan, where we formed the strongest team," he said.
"All our best boxers took part at the Islamic Solidarity Games, I believe that seven medals - three gold, three silver and one bronze - is a very good result," the head coach of the Azerbaijani boxing team said.
Leonid Lainsky thanked the Azerbaijan Boxing Federation for the excellent conditions for the boxers. "As a head coach, I am grateful to the Federation for the creation of good conditions and for its attitude to the team. After the games we will have no chance to take a long break, as we have a training on May 25, and the European Championships in Kharkov will start on June 14. The European Championship is a licensing selection for the World Championship, which will be held in late August. The schedule is very difficult for the guys, we had to get back to work immediately," he said.
"As a whole, the team's performance at the Islamic Solidarity Games was good. I hoped for a victory of each and every one of them, but you cannot win all the medals. Each boxer wanted to win, each boxer decided how he will do it, each of them was functionally, technically, tactically and physically ready to win, so the Azerbaijani boxers did everything they could at the games," Leonid Lainsky pointed out.
According to him, the performance of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan at the Islamic Solidarity Games was very strong. "The performance of Iraq's two boxers was also surprising. The Syrians are brave, desperate guys, irrespective of the fact that sometimes they box unprofessionally. Jordan a;so surprised me," the head coach of the Azerbaijani national boxing team said.
