28 March 2024

Thursday, 19:09

HOPES FOR 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic paralysed the sports life in Azerbaijan. Yet there were bright victories last year too.

Author:

15.01.2021

The year of 2020 was a year of troubles not only for Azerbaijan, but for the whole world. The COVID-19 pandemic has paralysed almost all spheres of life around the world. It did not spare the sports either. Many local and international competitions have been cancelled or postponed, including such major events as the Tokyo Olympics and the European Football Championship.

 

Summing up

In accordance with the action plan for 2020 approved by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Azerbaijan, 64 republican competitions, 12 international tournaments were organized jointly with local federations. The ministry also ensured the participation of national teams in 68 international competitions. In general, Azerbaijani athletes won 192 medals (60 gold, 46 silver, 86 bronze medals). As of today, 17 Azerbaijani athletes have got 13 licenses for the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games (athletics - 2, horse-racing - 1, swimming - 1, wrestling - 2, cycling - 1, rhythmic gymnastics - 2, artistic gymnastics - 2, taekwondo - 1, boxing - 1). In addition, we have 9 licenses for the Tokyo Paralympic Games.

The pandemic has forced most football competitions to be postponed. Only some countries were able to hold national championships, as well as the matches of the Champions League and Europa League after several months of break. Euro 2020 was postponed to the next year, while the traditional Formula 1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan was cancelled. The European Championship in artistic gymnastics among men and women, which was supposed to be held in Baku, was held in Turkey.

 

National football

For the first time since 2002, the Azerbaijani football championship completed unfinished. Garabagh FC, which was the leader of the Premier League according to the results of March 14, 2020, was declared a national champion. Unfortunately, the performance of Garabagh in European competitions was unsuccessful in comparison with the previous years. Having made it to the group stage for the seventh time in a row, the Aghdam club demonstrated the poorest result in 2020, with  only one point in the group stage.

UEFA's decision to hold home matches not in Baku, but in Istanbul, also played a role in the team's failures. During the hostilities in September-November, the performance of Garabagh in Europa League and other competitions in general somewhat faded into the background, as expected. Due to the martial law in Azerbaijan and the decision of UEFA, Garabagh had to play home matches with Cyprus and Montenegro on neutral fields - in Albania and Croatia.

In 2020, the national football team recruited its fifth foreign head coach, Italian Gianni de Biasi. As before, the team showed the unsuccessful result in Group C, where generally the weak teams play.

Fiasco of Araz FC in futsal was a shock. The team, which could achieve better results, dropped out the competition at the very first stage losing to AEK of Greece, not the very strong team.

 

Bright victories and losses

As for other sports, one of the brightest victories was the victory of Orkhan Safarov at the European Championship held in Prague. In the same competition, losing only in the final stage, Irina Kindzerskaya became the second strongest judoka of the the continent. Rustam Orujov, Mammadali Mehdiyev and Zelim Kotsoev received bronze medals.

Our wrestlers took part in the European Championship held in Rome in February, when the Azerbaijani national Greco-Roman wrestling team won six medals for the first time in its history. The title of the strongest of the continent was awarded to Sanan Suleymanov, who won two Armenian wrestlers on the way to the highest step of the podium. Rafig Huseynov became the European champion for the second time. Eldaniz Azizli, Murad Bazarov, Ulvi Ganizade and Islam Abbasov became bronze medallists. In the women's competition, Alisa Manolova and Tatyana Omelchenko were awarded silver and bronze medals, respectively. In freestyle wrestling, Aghahuseyn Mustafayev won a silver medal, while four more of our wrestlers became bronze medallists of the competition.

The winner of the World Chess Cup, Teymur Rajabov, did not take part in the Candidates Tournament due to the coronavirus pandemic. FIDE replaced him with Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. However, FIDE was unable to complete the tournament, as all the countries began to close airports due to the pandemic. Therefore, the sports community of Azerbaijan demanded the return of Teymur Rajabov to the tournament. FIDE is currently reviewing the issue.

Our wrestlers returned from the individual World Cup competitions held at the end of the year in Serbia without a gold medal. Islambek Dadov and Ahmednabi Gvarzatilov won a silver medal, while Haji Aliyev, Eldaniz Azizli, Beka Kandelaki and Alisa Manolova won bronze medals.

In boxing, Tayfur Aliyev won a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics at a licensing tournament held in London.

The greatest success in team competitions was achieved by Azerbaijani gymnasts. 1 silver and 2 bronze medals of the rhythmic gymnastics team at the European Championships is one of the significant events of the last year in the country's sports life.

The past year has not been without losses. Last year, the sports community of Azerbaijan lost the famous boxing specialist, former head coach of the national boxing team Mammad Eyvazov, veteran football player Elbrus Abbasov and the vice-president of the National Paralympic Committee Shaig Hamidov.

 

478 warriors

This is the number of Azerbaijani athletes who joined the army to liberate the occupied lands of Azerbaijan during the Patriotic War. Most of them were awarded various medals for heroism. The liberation of Azerbaijani lands from occupation helped us forget the missed opportunities in sports that did not come true due to the pandemic in 2020.



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