Azerbaijani gymnast qualifies for Rio 2016

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijani gymnast Oleg Stepko has entered the list of the national athletes, who won a ticket for the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.

At the World Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow from October 23 to November 1, Stepko took bronze medal with 15,966 points and secured very significant chance in his career towards Olympic medal.

Thus, Oleg won the first medal of the World Championships in Men’s Artistic Gymnastics in history of independent Azerbaijan. He shared the podium with Shudi Deng from China, following by Ukraine’s Oleg Verniaiev.

Following the first European Games in Baku this summer, where Stepko became a five-time medalist, he proved that he was the strong gymnast who deserves to fly to Rio.

Oleg is the second national gymnast who qualifies for Rio. Earlier in September, Azerbaijani gymnast Marina Durunda also claimed the ticket to Rio Summer Olympics.

Twenty-one-year-old Stepko is a Ukrainian athlete, who changed his sport nationality to Azerbaijani and since 2014 has represented the country in many national and international competitions.

In the World Cup Championships in Doha in 2014 the athlete took the first place in parallel bars. In the same year at the 1st Israeli Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Open Cup, Stepko won three gold medals in all-around, parallel bars, and rings disciplined to the country.