Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

European Athletics has praised the Organization of the European Youth Olympic Trials (EYOT) for holding a high-level competition event in Baku.

Senior Vice President of European Athletics, Jose Luis de Carlos, highlighted the "exceptionally high level of organization" of the three-day competition, which took place at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium in Baku on May 30-June 1.

The event brought together 678 of Europe's best young athletes to compete in 36 events to secure a place at the Youth Olympic Games to be held in Nanjing, China in August, 2014. It was the first international athletics event held in Azerbaijan and also the first test event for the Baku 2015 European Games which will be held next year on June 12-28.

De Carlos said, "European Athletics is very happy and impressed by the exceptionally high level of organization displayed by our Azerbaijani friends".

"The Azerbaijan Athletics Federation (AAF) were given a very short period of time to organize this event but they have done an excellent job and we are now looking forward to working with them on a successful European Athletics Team Championships 3rd League as part of the European Games," he said.

Chief Operating Officer of Baku 2015, Simon Clegg said, EYOT offered Baku 2015 European Games Operation Committee (BEGOC) the chance to test its capabilities to hold some sports events like its abilities to provide security, offering food services and transporting athletes during the competition.

"I am delighted by the praise received from de Carlos and would like to thank European Athletics for providing the AAF and BEGOC with the opportunity to host this competition," he said.

"Working alongside AAF we jointly held an exceptional event for all the athletes and coaches to enjoy. The success of our first test event as we are nearing the One Year To Go date is an important milestone in holding a European Games of which the whole continent will be proud," he added.

"In particular I wish to recognize the wonderful contribution of all 166 Azerbaijani National Technical Officials who held such an excellent event after only four months of intense preparation," he stressed.

The success of the event was reflected on the field as Azerbaijani athlete Nazim Babayev sealed gold in the Boys Triple Jump competition with a championship record leap of 16.14m on June 1.

This followed a silver medal won by Behafeta Hadiyes in the Girls 3000m Final the previous day and ensured Azerbaijan finished the competition with success on the track and field.

Chingiz Huseynzade, President of the AAF, said "Hosting the European Youth Olympic Trials here in Azerbaijan was an honor and I am proud of the effort displayed by everyone at the Local Organizing Committee to ensure they were such a resounding success."

"We thoroughly enjoyed welcoming all of the athletes and team officials to Azerbaijan and I wish them all well in their future pursuit of Youth Olympics glory," he said.

A total of 931 athletes and team officials stayed in the newly built Athletes Village throughout the competition, enabling it to be tested in an operational capacity for the first time.

Baku 2015, Europe's first senior multi-sport event, will bring together more than 6,000 athletes from the 49 countries affiliated to the European Olympic Committees to compete in 19 sports - 16 Olympic sports and three non-Olympic sports.

Nine of the sports will offer qualification opportunities for the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics in 2016. Those sports include archery, athletics, beach volleyball, cycling, shooting, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo and triathlon.