AZERBAIJANI BOXERS FOURTH BEST IN EUROPE

For Azerbaijani boxers the year of 2022 began with the European Youth Championship. The continental championship held in the Croatian city of Porec was marked by high results among the masters of leather gloves under 22 years old.

Successful performances by the four

Azerbaijani team represented in 7 of 13 weight categories has won 4 medals (1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze). Thus, our team finished the championship the fourth, sharing its place with the national teams of Bulgaria and Georgia. A total of 20 countries won medals in Croatia but only 11 of them experienced the joy of becoming the winners of the championship. The best team of Europe was Italy, followed by Turkey and Ukraine.

The winners in the Azerbaijani team were Nijat Huseynov (51 kg, gold), Ruslan Gadirov (54 kg,  silver) and Jalal Gurbanov (63.5 kg) and Nabi Iskandarov (67 kg)—both bronze medals. Nijat Huseynov, who hit the highest result in the team after two wins in a row, defeated Antonio Paiva (Ireland) in the 1/4 final, and Mehmethan Cinar (Turkey) in the semi-final. In the final stage, the opponent of Nijat was the Georgian athlete Lexo Khasaya. But Nijat became the gold medallist of the championship after beating his opponent 5:0 (30:28, 29:28, 30:27, 29:28, 29:27).

Ruslan Gadirov (54kg) could also repeat his teammate's success. Unfortunately, after defeating Marian Ginio (Romania) and Elmir Nabiyev (Ukraine) on his way to the finals, the 20-year-old Azerbaijan champion lost in a tense bout to Samet Gumus from Turkey and received a silver medal.

Nabi Iskandarov (67kg) lost in the semi-finals and finished the championship as the third best. Jalal Gurbanov, who was also awarded a bronze medal, was only a step away from the final stage of the tournament.

The performance of Nijat Huseynov and Ruslan Gadirov at the continental championship should be particularly noted. These boxers also proved themselves among young athletes showing higher results. Particularly, they have demonstrated that they were real candidates for the national adult team. From this year on, both boxers will participate in competitions among adults. Good technique, agility and willpower demonstrated by Nijat and Ruslan deserve appreciation. Both athletes can achieve high results among adults. Coach of the senior national team should involve them in joint training sessions with adults. We can even predict that both boxers will compete for licences for the next Olympic Games.

To the memory of martyrs

European champion Nijat Huseynov said in his interview that he dedicated his victory to the martyrs of Azerbaijan: "I am very happy that I did it. We will be grateful to them forever, as it is they who brought us the greatest victory. I think I did well in the bouts. My toughest bout was at the semi-final stage against Mehmethan Cinar; it was a tense and hard fight. I entered the ring with strong pains all over my body. But I forgot about them and concentrated on my opponent. I used my style and made it to the final. In the final stage, I was in a great mood. Although the bout was quite tense, I soon seized the initiative and finished the rounds successfully. My goal was to get the gold medal. And I did it. I want the Azerbaijani anthem to be played at all the competitions with my participation. And my biggest dream is to become a champion of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris to open a new page in the history of our national boxing".

Ruslan Gadirov, who won his first medal at international tournaments, said that it would encourage him to win future competitions. "I was very excited, because this is my first medal at an official international competition. I haven't competed much in tournaments outside Azerbaijan. Yet I became the second best athlete at the European Championship in the U-22 category. My first two fights against Marian Cinio from Romania and Elmir Nabiyev from Ukraine gave me a good preparation and I won well. I lost the final stage because I lacked experience, as my opponent saw through me. I’ll try to be more successful in the coming tournaments. The silver medal not only enriched my experience, but also became a lesson learned for me,” the 20-year-old athlete said.

Ambitious goals

Senior coach of the national team Nariman Abdullayev said that the European Championship was a success for the Azerbaijani team. He noted that the successful boxers will be supervised by the coaches from the main national team: "There were 39 participating countries in the European Championship. Four boxers from our team have made it to the podium. We are happy and believe there will be more medals in the future. Considering the young age of our medallists, we can look to the future with hope. In the future, they will be able to compete for the main team. To do this, they will compete in several serious tournaments in their age category.”

Abdullayev said that in a similar event last year held in Roseto degli Abruzzi, Italy, we also had seven boxers. But then only one of them, Ruslan Rustamov (64 kg) could win a bronze medal. Now the Azerbaijani team holds fourth place with four medals. Abdullayev said the next target will be a more confident performance: "Athletes, including boxers, always feel taken care of by our government. In response, they always aim for the best result. I believe we will continue our successful performance at the European Championship at next competitions.