Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijani freestyle wrestlers have reached the finals of the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games, Azernews reports, citing Trend.

Islam Bazarganov defeated all his rivals including Pakistani and Iranian wrestlers.

Another national wrestler Hacimurad Omarov reached the semi-finals, defeating Uzbek wrestler Arslan Budazhapov.

Female wrestler Gozal Zutova left no chances to her rivals from Tunis (16:5) and Cameroon (6:0)

At the same time, Askar Mammadaliyev reached the next stage of competition within the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games after the victory over the wrestler from Cameroon (10:0).

In total, the national team has already won 13 medals including 5 gold, 4 silver medals, and 3 bronze, Azernews reports.

The five gold medals came from wrestlers Anna Skidan, Mariya Stadnik, Haji Aliyev, Turan Bayramov, and taekwondo fighter Farida Azizova.

Athlete Alexis Copello, gymnast Ivan Tikhonov and wrestlers Abubakr Abakarov and Alyona Kolesnik won four silver medals for Azerbaijan.

Taekwondo fighters Patimat Abakarova, Gasim Mahammadov, Javad Aghayev, and wrestler Aliabbas Rzazade won bronze medals.

Thus, Azerbaijan ranks fifth among 56 participating countries. Turkiye, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan are in the top five.

A total of 281 athletes are representing Azerbaijan at the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games to run until August 18.

In March, the Organizing Committee announced the final program of the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games, which consists of 22 disciplines from 19 sports including 4 para-sports.

The organizers choose to remove six sports: water polo, diving, field hockey, tennis, wushu, and zurkhaneh. At their place, they choose to add archery, boccia, fencing, and kickboxing.

At the paralympic events, para powerlifting and blind judo were replaced by para table tennis and para archery.

Along these events, archery included four extra events with the Traditional Turkish Archery discipline.

Notably, the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games took place in Baku in 2017. All 56 members of the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation are participating in the Games.

Four disciplines from 21 sports were contested in the previous edition of the Islamic Solidarity Games.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lamiva993