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By Trend

Azerbaijan has extensive experience in organizing various kinds of sports events, said the Minister of Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Belarus Sergei Kovalchuk, who, as part of a working visit to Azerbaijan, attended the 35th World rampoline Gymnastics, Double mini-trampoline and Tumbling Championships held at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku, Trend reports.

During an interview with representatives of the Azerbaijani media, Sergei Kovalchuk noted that the world championship was organized at the highest level: "I have been to many places and have seen various kinds of competitions. I know that Azerbaijan has a lot of experience in organizing various kinds of sporting events. The first European Games in Baku were organized at the highest level. The National Gymnastics Arena is a wonderful sports facility that any country can envy. Unfortunately, the World Championship is being held without spectators. I think many were interested in following the progress of the competition. The championship is very entertaining, I congratulate the Azerbaijani side on the implementation of such a good competition".

The Minister stressed that he had talked with the members of the Belarusian national team, and all the athletes had the best impressions regarding the organization and holding of the World Championship.

"At this stage, we are satisfied with the performance, given that yesterday in the team competition our gymnasts won gold medals, and we can also compete and show a good result," he added.

Speaking about the takeoff of trampoline gymnastics in Belarus, Sergei Kovalchuk added that the work of good coaches and specialists, as well as discipline, a successful training process in the complex give a positive result.

"There was also a good school in Soviet times. The impetus and breakthrough in this discipline was the creation in the city of Vitebsk of an excellent base for trampoline gymnastics, where athletes can train all year round," the minister said.

Sergei Kovalchuk noted that the Ministry of Sports and Tourism of Belarus is ready to cooperate with the Azerbaijani side in many areas in sports.

"My Azerbaijani counterpart, Minister of Youth and Sports Farid Gayibov, and I closely communicated on all areas of activity, discussed both summer and winter sports. There are many sports in which we compete with dignity, there are also those where one of the parties takes a more significant position. We are ready for cooperation, both in Belarus and in Azerbaijan there are excellent bases. I know that work on the development of alpine skiing is very actively carried out in Azerbaijan, a base is being created. Unfortunately, we have no mountains, so for the future we discussed a range of tasks and issues that will be mutually beneficial to the Belarusian and Azerbaijani sides.

We are ready to cooperate in all areas. I note that the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku has excellent conditions. I can congratulate you on such a wonderful gymnastic complex, this once again demonstrates that the state pays great attention to sports," Kovalchuk noted.

The Minister also told how sports competitions were held in Belarus at the very beginning of the pandemic.

"We are the only country that did not cancel the Republican football championship during the COVID-19 pandemic. Naturally, we have introduced a set of restrictive measures. All countries apply them today, and we introduced them at the very initial stage. We made a deliberate, balanced decision for each specific match, for each specific case. And each official understood the level of responsibility of these decisions. But most importantly, there was daily monitoring of the situation," said he adding that after that UEFA showed interest in the experience of the Belarusian side.

Commenting on the fact that the three-time Paralympic champion, athlete of Belarusian origin Roman Salei has been playing for Azerbaijan for many years, Sergei Kovalchuk stressed that this is a personal decision of each athlete.

"To compete for another country is the decision of each individual athlete. This practice exists all over the world," he added.

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