Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Another grandiose tournament was held in the National gymnastics arena in Baku on August 6-7.

It was the first sporting event, which brought together all six species - male and female gymnastics, tumbling, trampoline, sports acrobatics and aerobic gymnastics.

The championship brought together 80 athletes representing Baku Gymnastics School, the Republican Olympic Sports Lyceum, Children-Youth Creative Center of Nizami district and Neftchi Sports Club Public Association.

The joint tournament was supervised by international referees such as the member of the Technical Committee of the International Gymnastics Federation Arthur Mitskevich (Latvia), member of the Technical Committee of the European Union of Gymnastics, Croatian Mario Vuko, Russian Dmitry Andreev and Vice-president of National Gymnastics Federation of Georgia Besarion Gamsakhurdiya.

During the two-day tournament, sportsmen demonstrated their technical abilities.

The first day of the joint championship of Azerbaijan Gymnastics was remembered with remarkable performances of gymnasts.

For the first time in the history of Azerbaijan's independence, female artistic gymnastics were put on display.

In female group, Nekrasova Marina became the winner of the gold medal. Mariya Smirnova was awarded with the silver medal and Julia Inshina won the bronze medal.

The second day of the tournament was remembered with spectacular performances of men gymnastics.

The winner of the tournament of gymnastics was Oleg Stepko, who changed his citizenship from Ukraine to Azerbaijan this year. Pyotor Pakhnukh and Ruslan Namazov took the second and third places respectively.

Lider of Azerbaijan's national team Stepko shared his impressions after the championship. He noted that the competition was a kind of preparation for the World Championship.

"We have Turkey's competition ahead after which only one month is left to the mundial. After the World Championship we will focus on the preparations for the European Games in Baku," he said.

Tournament of tumbling and acrobatics were held along with gymnastics tournament.

The female trio of Aynur Huseyniva, Narmin Ramazanova and Lala Huseynova was especially remembered by the audience. Duet of Aygun Akhmedova and Ruhidil Gurbanli became the sole winner among the young talents.

The most exciting performances were demonstrated by sportsmen of tumbling, soaring in the air, seemingly not even touching the ground.

Azerbaijan's talented jumper Mikhail Malkin won the gold medal of the tournament, leaving behind Hafiz Rzayev and Said Salimov.