11 MEDALS FROM EUROPEAN GAMES

The next venue of the European Games, which was first held in Baku, was Poland. The Third European Games in Krakow and five other Polish cities attracted attention with new types of sports.

Games in numbers

About 7,000 athletes from 48 countries attended the competition, which featured 253 sets of medals in 29 sports. The Azerbaijani national team travelled to Poland with 101 athletes representing 14 sports and finished the games with 11 medals (3 gold, 2 silver, 6 bronze) in five sports: karate (2 gold, 1 bronze), kickboxing (1 gold), taekwondo (1 silver, 1 bronze), boxing (1 silver, 1 bronze), muay thai (3 bronze).

Karate fighters Tural Aghalarzade (67kg), Irina Zaretskaya (68kg) and kickboxer Farid Aghamoglanov (63.5kg) won gold medals in the Azerbaijani team. Silver medallists were taekwondist Sayad Dadashov (54kg) and boxer Muhammed Abdullayev (+92kg). Bronze medallists went to karatedokas Asiman Gurbanly (+84kg), taekwondoka Hashim Magomedov (58kg), boxer Murad Allahverdiyev (80kg) and muay thai athlete Khayal Aliyev (67kg), Emily Rzayeva (63.5kg) and Aysu Devrishova (57kg).

Thus, the national team ranked 24th in the overall standings. The strongest team of the Third Euro Games became the Italian national team with 100 medals (35 gold, 26 silver, 39 bronze).

So, the Italian team became the winner of the the European Games  after Baku-2015 and Minsk-2019, where the Russian national team was the best.

The Spain national team ranked the second with 57 medals (21-17-19), while the Ukrainian team became the third with 41 medals (21-12-8). The fourth and fifth places went to Germany with 63 medals (20-16-27) and France with 62 (17-19-26).

A total of 840 medals were awarded at the Third European Games: 254 gold, 253 silver and 333 bronze. Athletes from 41 out of 48 countries returned home with medals.

Repeated failures

Unfortunately, the performance of prominent Azerbaijani athletes at the Third European Games did not look like as expected. They could not make it to the top of the podium, although their coaches expected medals from them. First of all, the performance of taekwondokas can be considered unsatisfactory. The Azerbaijani team, which was left without medals at the world cup in Baku, demonstrated the same performance in Poland.

Azerbaijani shooters also failed to live up to expectations. The members of the national team could not get any medals in both individual and team competitions. Olympic medallist and world champion Alfonso Dominguez also performed significantly below his level. He finished the performance at the very beginning of the tournament, losing in the first bout.

The national fencing team also returned home without any awards. European champion and national team leader Anna Bashta demonstrated probably the weakest performance in her career. Her failure left both her and the team without medals.

Such sports as wrestling, judo, gymnastics and sambo were not included in the programme of the Third European Games. Judo was represented only in team competitions. It is not a secret that Azerbaijani wrestlers are among the strongest in the world. At their previous games they won a large number of medals and helped the national team to take a high place in the standings. But the absence of Azerbaijani wrestlers at the Third European Games affected the overall result of the national team.

Successful athletes and plans

At the same time, Azerbaijani karatekas demonstrated a good performance, taking two gold and one bronze medals. The winner of the European Games Irina Zaretskaya noted that the competition was tense, with keen rivalry: "The final round was very hard. My vis-a-vis Elena Quirici is a principal rival for me. After all, I am number 1 in the world ranking, and she is number 2. We often meet at the Premier League tournaments. We both win. She's trying to achieve my results. But I don't want to give up my position. It gives me extra motivation. I had prepared a special tactics for my opponent, which she is not used to. But I failed to realise it. The score remained 1-1 for a long time. But the turning kick I made in the last seconds brought me the victory. It was the same at the European Games in Baku. This is my favourite trick."

European Games silver medallist Muhammed Abdullayev (+92kg) said that his main goal was to win a licence for the Summer Olympic Games in Paris: "I came second after losing in the final to Delicious Ory from Britain. I admit I was exhausted by that time. My main goal was to compensate for that and win a gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics. Azerbaijan Boxing Federation will develop a special plan to prepare for the Olympics. As far as I can judge, training camps will be organised in the USA and other countries. I believe that the silver medal won at the European Games was a good result. I am happy that I got a license to the Olympic Games in Paris".

The first ever European Games were held in Baku (2015), followed by the second multi-sport event held in Minsk (2019). The Azerbaijani team ranked the second in the overall standings at the First Euro Games, winning 56 medals (21-15-20). In Minsk, the Azerbaijani national team became the tenth in the medal standings, winning 28 medals (5-10-13) only.