Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The Azerbaijani athletes who performed successfully at the 27th European Championships in Acrobatic Gymnastics in the German town of Riesa have returned home.

Fans were awaiting their arrival at the airport with flowers and encouraging posters, as it was the first time that the national athletes achieved such a phenomenal record at this type of competition.

The country sent men’s and mixed pair athletes in the 12-18 age groups to the competition. Both groups performed successfully at the tournament.

After a final combined exercise that received 27.650 points from the judges, the men’s pair of Seymur Jafarov and Murad Akparov won a silver medal.

The national pair fell just 0.3 points short of the Russian athletes that took first. The Belorussian team ranked third.

“The competitions were held at a very high level,” national athlete Jafarov told Trend. “We believe in victory. Our opponents were also strong. However, despite this, we were able to win. In general, we consider our performance satisfactory.”

The mixed pair Aghasif Rahimov and Nurjan Jabbarli became bronze medalists. In this category, first and second places were taken by gymnasts from Portugal and Russia.

Nurjan also expressed satisfaction with the performances. She believes that next time, Azerbaijani gymnasts will achieve better results.

Agasif, in turn, noted that the competition was satisfactory. "We performed very well, and reached the final without difficulty and believe that later we will achieve better results," said the gymnast

National athletes will soon participate at the AEON Cup-2015 in Tokyo scheduled for September 30 to October 6.

Gymnasts from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, and other countries will also take part at the competition, which is believed to contribute to the development of the rhythmic gymnastics worldwide.

National rhythmic gymnastics team coach Marianna Vasileva said that the Azerbaijani team will include top performers such as Marina Durunda, Ayshan Bayramova, and Jala Piriyeva, who will participate in the junior’s category.

”In the last championship we took fifth place,” said Vasileva, “I hope that our athletes will show better results this year.”

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz