"FASTER, HIGHER, STRONGER"

No matter how little they care about sport, hardly anyone remains indifferent when Azerbaijan's national team is competing. In this respect, 2013 has brought the Azeris much more excitement than disappointment. 

In 2013 Azerbaijan's sportsmen have achieved major victories in chess, football, judo and boxing. This year will undoubtedly be remembered for the preparations for the first European Games - the presentation of the official logo and the announcement of the programme of prestigious tournaments.

 In 2013, many of our homeland's victories were produced by the junior, youth and national teams.

Regionplus would like to remind its readers of the major and most memorable victories achieved by Azerbaijan's sportsmen over the past year.  

According to official statistics, in 2013 Azeri sportsmen won 782 medals in international competitions: 280 gold, 233 silver and 269 bronze . In Olympic sports they won 296 medals (101 gold, 74 silver and 121 bronze). It is noteworthy that in 2012 a total of 735 medals were won, in which 273 were in Olympic categories of sport. 

Azerbaijan entered 53 sportsmen in the 3rd Islamic Solidarity Games; they won 24 medals (six gold, nine silver and nine bronze), its team taking 7th place. True, the organisation of those games which had been postponed three times and were ultimately held in the Indonesian city of Palembang, left much to be desired and were memorable for a number of shortcomings.

In Palembang Azerbaijan's national anthem was played six times for karate competitors Ayxan Mammadov (84 kg) and Rafayel Agayev (75 kg), for the wrestling team, for the 200-metre back-stroke swimmer Boris Kirillov, for the winner in the triple jump Yekaterina Sariyeva, and for the 5,000-metre runner Hayle Ibrahimov.  

The 27th World Students' Universiade, which was held in the Tatarstan capital Kazan, will be remembered for thrilling bouts and considerable excitement. Azerbaijan entered 75 sportsmen, who won four gold, five silver and seven bronze medals, in the games, in which sportsmen from 150 countries took part.

Azerbaijan's sportsmen achieved the greatest success in wrestling, heavy and light athletics. Rasul Cunayev [Junayev] achieved a phenomenal victory in Greco-Roman wrestling, when he pinned Russia's Olympic champion down to the canvas in a decisive fight. Fighting in the 59-kg category, Yuliya Ratkevich easily beat all her rivals. In heavy athletics, Firudin Quliyev, who won the gold medal in the 69-kg category, showed that it is not without reason that he is considered a promising sportsman. Once again we enjoyed the performance of Hayle Ibrahimov, who won the final 5,000-metre race.

Azerbaijan's footballers have completed their participation in the two-year-long qualifiers for the World Cup, which is to be held in [the Brazilian capital] Brazil in 2014. After some failures in the early games, Azerbaijan's players completed it with record results. For the first time in its history the country's top team gained nine points and rose to 88th position in its FIFA rating, going up 19 places in one go. This undoubtedly helped them to put their all into the match against Northern Ireland, in which the goals scored by Rufat Dadasev and Mahir Sukurov brought them a two-nil victory. The goal scored by Vaqif Cavadov [Javadov] gave our team another point in the final minutes of the main game against Russia. After winning four points in the previous two games, and nine points altogether, for the first time in its history Azerbaijan's team occupied fourth place in the group.

In spite of this, the football teams' performances at the European Cup  left much to be desired; almost all the clubs went out during the early rounds. Only the "Karabakh" team did relatively well. After getting through three rounds, the Agdam team only lost to the  "Eintracht" [Frankfurt] club in the play-off.

Azerbaijan's boxers were especially successful in 2013, achieving phenomenal results at the European and World Championships. At the 40th European Boxing Championship in Minsk four boxers won medals: Mahammadrasul Macidov ( 91 kg plus) returned to his homeland a champion; Teymur Mammadov (91 kg) won the silver, and Salman Alizada (49 kg) and Elvin Mamiszada (52 kg) took the bronze.

At the 17th World Boxing Championship held in [the Kazakh city of] Alma-Ata, Azerbaijan's boxing team rose to third place in the overall team rating. This outcome was made possible thanks to the two gold medals won by Mahammadrasul Macidov ( 91 kg plus) and Cavid Calabiyev (56 kg). Teymur Mammadov (91 kg) took third place. These are the best results that Azerbaijan's boxers have ever achieved at a world championship.

The first world championship in mixed martial arts has been a lucky one for Azerbaijan's sportsmen. At the championship attended by martial arts contestants from 38 countries, members of Azerbaijan's Martial Arts League won one gold and one silver medal. Etiqad Atakisiyev was our country's first gold medallist in this type of sport, when he won five bouts in a row in the 70-kg weight category. Zaur Hacibabayev [Gajibabayev] (93 kg) came second in the finals.

Azerbaijan's sportswomen returned from the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Vienna with a silver medal. These graceful Azeri women followed up this worthy performance at the World Cup by taking second place in the group exercises at the European Championship. The European Championships differ from other tournaments in the high standard of the competitors and numerous extremely popular sportswomen entering it. In this sense, it can be said that Azerbaijan's gymnasts had to work really hard to come out on top.

The World Judo Championship in Brazil, which had eight contestants from Azerbaijan taking part, was another gold-medal page in the history of Azerbaijan's sport.  These judokas masters, who won a gold and a bronze medal, took seventh place in the team line-up. Many people were extremely surprised by Orxan Safarov's gold-medal win on the first day of the contest. Orxan's confident performance in the junior competitions last year were later repeated in this year's adults contests. On the last day of the tournament, after beating two rivals, Elxan Mammadov won the gold, becoming the first Azerbaijani in the history of judo to win the title of world champion.

Azerbaijan's paralympian team gave a worthy performance at the World Judo Championships in Budapest, taking first place in the team category as well as winning five gold medals, one silver and four bronze in the individual contests. After beating all his rivals, Ilham Zakiyev (100 kg plus) became the five-time European champion (2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013). He as also been twice champion of the Paralympian Games (2004, 2008) and has twice been champion of the world games.

Azerbaijan's grand-master Sahriyar Mammadyarov  won at the World Speed Chess Championship in the Russian town of Khanti-Mansiysk. After 15 rounds of Swedish-style competition, he had won 11.5 points, overtaking all his rivals. Mammadyarov continued his run of success in Beijing where he won the five-round Grand-prix, in which 12 major international grand-masters took part. After his victory in Beijing, he had gained 170 points in the ratings, which allowed him to enter the tournament for the chess crown.

Sahriyar Mammadyarov also helped the country's male chess team to win at the European Championships in Warsaw. This was already the fourth championship in a row, at which Azerbaijan's team was among the prize-winners. Azerbaijan's team was the only one to attain such consistent success at the European Chess Championships.

The 21st World Karate Championship was held in Paris. Azerbaijan's karate contestants took eighth place out of 113 countries, after winning two silver and one bronze medal. The silver medal-winners were Rafael Agaev, who has been successful many times at the European and World Karate Championships, and Sahin Atamov. The bronze-medal winner was Ayxan Mamayev. At the European Championships in Hungary , according to the World Karate Federation (WKF), Rafayel Agayev's opponents did not stand a chance, so he became the European champion yet again.

The world championship in heavy athletics was held in the Polish town of Wroclaw. After lifting a total of 337 kg (143 kg plus 194 kg), the young weightlifter Firudin Quliyev won the bronze medal. The 194-kg weight he lifted in a single effort allowed him to set a new world record and brought him the "small gold". Azerbaijan's sportswoman Kristina Iova (53 kg) won a silver medal, while Valentin Kristov (62 kg) took fourth place. 

Farida Azizova and Radik Isayev took bronze at the World Taekwondo Championship in Mexico. Mahammad Abdullayev won a gold medal at the European Junior Championship. Ayxan Tagizada also became a gold medallist there, while Yusif Huseynli and Elnur Maharramov took bronze.

The main disappointment of the year for Azerbaijan was the performance by its contestants at the World Wrestling Championship in Hungary. The team, which had produced champions for several years in a row, did not win any gold medals this time round. The contestants only won four medals, two silver and two bronze, which is regarded as unsatisfactory for such a team. Silver and bronze were taken in the Greco-Roman wrestling by Saman Tahmasibi and Shalva Gadabadze respectively. The free-style wrestler Xetag Qazumov [Khetag Gazyumov]  took second place. Yuli Radkevich won another bronze.

The coming year 2014 is to be packed with sports events, which include the Winter Olympics in [the Russian town of] Sochi and the World Football Championships in Brazilia. Unfortunately, we cannot expect any particular successes from Azerbaijan's sportspeople in Sochi, and we shall only be able to support other teams in the 2014 World Cup.

Nevertheless, there will be plenty of excitement coming up for Azerbaijan's sports fans, since the official qualifying rounds for the first European Games in 2015 are starting, some of which are to be held in Baku.

THE 10 BEST SPORTSMEN OF THE YEAR ACCORDING TO AZERBAIJAN'S MINISTRY OF YOUTH AND SPORT

Magommadrasul Macidov, (boxer, world and European champion)

Cavid  Calabiyev (boxer, world champion)

Elxan Mammadov (judo, world champion)

Orxan Safarov (judo, world championship bronze-winner)

Xetag Qazumov, (free-style wrestler, World Wrestling Championships silver-medallist)

Teymur Mammadov (heavyweight boxer, bronze-winner, World Amateur Boxing Championships)

Firudin Quliyev (heavy athletics, Universiade winner, world championship bronze-winner)

Radik Isayev (taekwondo, World Taekwondo Championship bronze-winner)

Rafayel Isayev (karate, European champion, Islamic Games winner)

Ilham Zakiyev (paralympian, European champion)