Three days of Gymnastics success as Baku prepares for European Games

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

The Open Joint Azerbaijan Championship in Gymnastics, held in Baku for three days was remembered as a sport holiday in the country.

A total of 131 gymnasts from 22 countries competed for medals in all six disciplines at the stunning National Gymnastics Arena in Baku on March 4-6.

Georges Guelzec, European Union of Gymnastics (UEG) President said this event marks an important milestone in what will be an exciting and thrilling Gymnastics competition at the first ever European Games.

“I am sure that with the support of the UEG and the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation, we will deliver a competition which will delight and entertain both athletes and spectators in Baku and TV spectators around the world. This event marked also the debut of a new competition format, combining different gymnastics disciplines in one competition based on the system of alternation,” he noted.

Pierce O’Callaghan, Baku 2015 Director of Sport, said: “The Baku Prepares Open Joint Championship was an excellent event that was perfect preparation for this summer´s inaugural European Games.

"We had six disciplines and more than 130 athletes competing in a very short period of time, and both the organization and their performance was excellent. The test event was a huge success and it encourages us to keep on working hard to be ready to host the Games,” he noted.

The sport event became memorable for the country, thanks to the bright victories of the Azerbaijani gymnasts, which brought the country 17 gold, nine silver and 3 bronze medals.

In the artistic all-around finals, home nation’s favorite, Oleg Stepko didn’t disappoint the crowd in the men’s event. Winning five gold medals, Oleg became Azerbaijanis five-time champion. His teammate Petro Pakhnyuk hot on his heels, took silver.

In the women’s event, Azerbaijan’s Kristina Pravdina claimed the number one spot after a fall by Tutya Yilmaz (TUR) in the final performance of the day, with her teammate Mutlu winning bronze medal.

Accomplished 2014 world champion Yana Kudryavtseva of Russia was the star of the show in the rhythmic individual all-around competition, maintaining a convincing lead from her opponents from the first of her four rotations.

Azerbaijan’s Marina Durunda took to the floor to riotous applause on every rotation and was the closest gymnast to challenge for the Russian’s title, finishing in the second position, while the bronze medal was for the national gymnast Gulsum Shafizada.

Russia’s result in the group all-around was no less impressive. The Russian group led from their first performance. The French group sensitive and graceful musical interpretation, and accomplished execution enabled them to take the silver with some ease, leaving the two Azerbaijan groups to battle for bronze. In the end there was a mere 0.001 between bronze and fourth place.

Three countries were battling it out in the acrobatic competition, in mixed pairs and women’s group events. Solid performances in both the dynamic and balance events gave Bulgaria’s mixed pair a strong foundation from which to take the edge over Azerbaijan in the final combination routine, with Germany close behind them in third position.

Performing with the dynamic and balance exercises, the Azerbaijani women’s group in acrobatics won gold, while Germany’s representatives ranked second.

Spain’s Sara Moreno and Vicente Lli Lloris managed to give Romania’s Lavinia Panaete and Dacian Barna a run for their money in the mixed pairs qualification. Third-place Azerbaijan was more than three points behind the leading two. In the teams event, Romania finished first, with Spain close behind in second and Azerbaijan finishing third.

Meanwhile, in trampoline event the United States, Azerbaijan and Portugal dominated the top spots in both the men’s and women’s individual competitions as well as the synchronized events.