ADEQUATE SUBSTITUTION

The Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championship in Kiev is over. The 2012 Summer Games in London was followed by a generational change in Azerbaijan's national team like in many other teams. In this respect, the world championship was a serious test for the Azerbaijani team: it was the first big tournament in the life of seven out of the eight gymnasts. Despite this the weaker sex representatives lived up to our hopes. In ribbon exercises, Marina Durunda placed fifth and together with Lala Yusifova won the right to perform in all-round events. The Azerbaijani group exercise team comprising Sabina Abbasova, Irada Ahadzada, Mansura Bagiyeva, Sabina Garatova, Sityana Vasilyeva and Aliya Pasayeva placed sixth in the exercises with three balls and two ribbons and seventh in all-round events. The gymnasts failed to win medals at this prestigious competition but nonetheless the results give us ground for look into the future optimistically. It should be kept in mind that it was the first world championship for the Azerbaijani gymnasts who were in the junior category quite recently. The fact that they were among the strongest in the all-round events speaks volumes. By way of comparison, only Aliya Garayeva represented Azerbaijan in the all-round events final at the previous world championship. That gave her the right to go to London. Had there been a selection for the Olympics at the Kiev competitions, Durunda and Yusifova would have secured themselves places on the Olympics team.

Azerbaijan's team made a very good showing in the all-round events. Placing 7th, the Azerbaijani gymnasts left behind the teams of Ukraine, Japan, Germany and Greece. The team has made good progress compared to the previous world championship where it placed 13th. The gymnasts even made it to the final in the exercises with three balls and two bands.

Chief coach Marianna Vasilyeva has analysed the team's performance at the world championship for R+. Satisfied with the young gymnasts' performance, the coach made no secret her great hopes pinned on them.

- The tournament in Kiev was the first big competitions of this kind for most of our gymnasts. Are you satisfied with our girls' performances?

- Our gymnasts performed worthily in Kiev. Given that the Olympics preliminaries have not started yet, the team fully justified our hopes. Had the championship in Kiev been used to select candidates for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio-de-Janeiro, Durunda, Yusifova and our national team for group exercises would definitely have won their passes to the Olympics. The results achieved by intensive training certainly make us happy. As regards the group exercise team, its 7th place should be regarded as a success as they left behind quite a number of teams that performed at the Olympics. In addition our performance with three balls and two ribbons won us the right to perform in the final. As for individual performances, Durunda and Yusifova made it to the finals in all-round events. Marina Durunda also performed a ribbon exercise in the final where she placed 5th.

- Is the process of building the main team nearing completion or it will last for some more time?

- Durunda and Yusifova who performed as junior now compete on a par with adult athletes. But they are aware that the competition will get bitterer next year as other promising gymnasts will be in one rank with them, such as Gulsum Safizada, Nilufyar Niftaliyeva and Aysan Bayramova. Strong competition will promote the girls' professional growth. New names will also appear on the group exercise team. The first and reserve teams will start vying with each other as from the New Year and that will help make the first team as strong as possible.

- There were frequent complaints in Kiev about the refereeing. Some teams even submitted their protests. It would be interesting to know your opinion on the quality of refereeing?

- Not all countries had their representatives on the jury. In this respect it was the first championship of this kind. Unfortunately, that affected us, too. Azerbaijan was not represented on the jury despite having an internationally certified judge - Natalya Bulanova.

- In any event, our gymnasts improved their results compared with the previous world championship in Montpellier. I don't know the criteria used by the International Federation to select the jury. Some countries were represented by 2-3 referees while there were no referees representing other states. 

- Did the championship results justify your hopes in general?

- I could say victory was won by the worthy. The results testify abut the development of rhythmic gymnastics and competition getting bitter. Some countries give special attention to rhythmic gymnastics, so one can say that future competitions will be even harder.

- Will you give the gymnasts a short rest or there'll be no break?

- They'll have a 10 day break. Then we'll get back to training. Next year will see a number of important competitions. We are going to work substantially with the junior group exercise team. The latest world championship has shown that we are on the right path. The Gymnastics Federation of Azerbaijan has created excellent training conditions for all the athletes. It is thanks to these conditions that Azerbaijani gymnastics is on the rise. A new sports arena for rhythmic gymnastics will be put into operation in the near future. It is a positive factor that interest in gymnastics is growing in this country. There number of families is ever growing who wish their girls to go in for this sport. Our gymnasts' future successes will give even more joy to our fans. Our junior gymnasts' great performance at such a prestigious tournament as the world championship has proved that we made the right choice. We must continue working with this team.