The Open Joint Azerbaijan Championships in Gymnastics started in Baku yesterday. 133 gymnasts from 22 countries will compete for medals.
Azerbaijani representative Oleg Stepko won the gold medal among the men in the all-round competition with 90,600 points following all rotations. Another Azerbaijani gymnast, Petr Pahnyuk, settled for the silver medal with 88,050 points. The Croatian winner of the Olympic Games in London, Filip Ude, captured the bronze medal with 86,100 points.
Azerbaijani gymnast Kristina Pravdina with 50,339 points is in the lead in the all-round competition among women. Turkish gymnast Tutya Yilmaz with 50,131 points took second spot, after making some gross mistakes in the last rotation. Another gymnast of Turkey, Demet Mutlu, won the bronze medal with 49,332 points.
The winner of yesterday's competition, Kristina Pravdina, speaking about the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku, said it is very comfortable to perform there. The gymnast also thanked the creators of the sports infrastructure.
Oleg Stepko said all the necessary conditions have been created in Azerbaijan for successful performances of gymnasts at the First European Games.
“The preparations for the First European Games have begun, and today’s championship is the first step towards them. After this championship we await the European Gymnastics Championship, and two weeks later - the World Cup. This will be a rich period of competitions and beginnings, which are necessary in order to prepare and adequately perform at the First European Games. Moreover, Azerbaijan has all the necessary conditions for this,” he said.
The secretary general of the national federation, vice president of the Union of European Gymnastics (UEG), Farid Haibov, told Vestnik Kavkaza that this championship is very important as a test event ahead of the European Games. According to him, all six gymnastic disciplines will be presented at the First European Games and competitions in all these disciplines are summarized in one tournament for the first time. "All these six kinds of sporting competitions will take place at the European games too. The competition will be held in one place in all kinds of sports. Women's and men's gymnastics will be held at one time, the next day - artistic acrobatics, the next day - trampoline and aerobics. The competition will take place in parallel, at the same time. This format has previously never been used and it will be very difficult to hold it. So we decided to combine our championships and make a test tournament in this format," Gaibov said.
The secretary general of the national federation, vice president of the Union of European Gymnastics (UEG), Farid Haibov, told Vestnik Kavkaza that this championship is very important as a test event ahead of the European Games. According to him, all six gymnastic disciplines will be presented at the First European Games and competitions in all these disciplines are summarized in one tournament for the first time.
"All these six kinds of sporting competitions will take place at the European games too. The competition will be held in one place in all kinds of sports. Women's and men's gymnastics will be held at one time, the next day - artistic acrobatics, the next day - trampoline and aerobics. The competition will take place in parallel, at the same time. This format has previously never been used and it will be very difficult to hold it. So we decided to combine our championships and make a test tournament in this format," Gaibov said.
