UNDER ONE ROOF

The Open Joint Azerbaijan Championships in Gymnastics have been held at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku with athletes from 22 countries competing. For the first time, lovers of this sport have had the opportunity to see athletes from all types of gymnastic events performing in one sporting arena.

The championships, which were a kind of qualifying event in the run-up to the 1st European Games "Baku-2015", also opened a new page in the history of gymnastics. "This competition is special in that it was held under the same format as the 1st European Games will be held. This has become a precedent in the history of gymnastics and an excellent opportunity for the masters of aerobics and acrobats to compete with rhythmic and artistic gymnasts and trampoliners under one roof," the Azerbaijani Gymnastics Federation believes.

It is no secret that the European Gymnastics Federation has favoured tournaments of this kind on more than one occasion. The management of the European organization feels that it gives fans the chance to choose between different gymnastic disciplines.

At the open championships held last week six disciplines were presented, four of which were Olympic disciplines. The competitors in the tournament tested their strengths in rhythmic gymnastics, men's and women's artistic gymnastics, aerobics, acrobatics and the trampoline.

Azerbaijani artistic gymnasts Oleg Stepko and Kristina Pravdina won gold medals in the all-round events. The Azerbaijani second team ("Azerbaijan-2") took the bronze in the open championship group all-round artistic gymnastics event. The gold in this event went to Russia and the silver to France. The Azerbaijani first team had to be content with fourth place.

Azerbaijani gymnasts Ulyana Dyakova and Anatoliy Leonov, who were competing together in the mixed pairs aerobatics, took third place in the final for combined exercises. The Bulgarians won the gold and the duo from Germany secured second place.

Tournament favourite Marina Durunda won a silver medal in the all-round event, and the bronze went to another home favourite, Gulsum Safizada. The Russian Yana Kudryavtseva took the gold in this discipline.

Durunda also took the bronze in the hoop, with first place going to Kudryavtseva and second to the Georgian girl, Salome Pazhava.

Durunda went to the podium five times altogether, reaching first place in the ribbon, beating World Champion Kudryavtseva in the final.

In the women's group acrobatics competition the Azerbaijani team of Lala Huseynova, Aynur Huseynova and Narmin Ramazanova overcame the Germans to take the gold. Two countries took part in this programme at the championships.

The gold medal in the parallel bars went to the Azerbaijani gymnast Oleg Stepko, whereas another Azerbaijani - Petr Pakhnyuk - won his fourth silver in this discipline at the championships. The Turk, Ahmet Onder, came third in this part of the programme.

This was the fourth of five golds for Stepko at these championships. As well as this, he also came first in the beam, the rings, artistic gymnastics and all-round events. 

Another Azerbaijani gymnast, Oleg Piunov, took second place in the qualification for the individual trampoline competition, with third place going to the Portuguese, Pedro Ribeiro.

In the aerobics pairs the Azerbaijani duo of Yekaterina Kotlyarova and Timur Alakparov took third place. The gold went to the duo from Spain and the silver to the Romanians.

In the static exercises mixed pairs final Ulyana Dyakova and Anatoliy Leonov took first place ahead of the Germans, with the bronze going to the duo from Bulgaria.

The Azerbaijani artistic gymnastics team won its second silver in a day for performances with three pairs of clubs and two hoops. The gold in this discipline went to the Russian gymnasts and the bronze to the Latvian team. Azerbaijan's second team had to be content with fourth place but not far behind.

Speaking about the Open Joint Championships, Altay Hasanov, Vice- President of the Azerbaijani Gymnastics Federation, said: "The 1st European Games will be held in Baku in June for the first time in the sport's history. The Azerbaijani Open Joint Championships for Gymnastic Disciplines are a preparation for this great sporting festival. As a rule, competitions for each discipline are held separately at the European championships. On this occasion, by combining six gymnastics disciplines, we are holding a tournament for a special new programme at the National Gymnastics Arena. In terms of results the Azerbaijani gymnasts performed well. Marina Durunda was very good. We expect even greater success from them in the future. The main thing was to see how our gymnasts will feel with the combined four Olympic and two non-Olympic gymnastics disciplines in a single sports event. The training level of the athletes, coaches and all those involved in these competitions is satisfactory. The Azerbaijani Gymnastics Federation will draw its conclusions for the coming 1st European Games based on the results of this tournament. We are working and consulting with the organizing committee of the European Games Baku-2015," Altay Hasanov said.

Trend reports that the vice-president of the Gymnastics Federation expressed the hope that the Azerbaijani flag will be repeatedly raised and the country's anthem heard at the European Games which will be inscribed in the history of sport.

In sum, the Azerbaijan Open Joint Championships for Gymnastics Disciplines demonstrated the ambitious mood of the Azerbaijani gymnasts for medals at the 1st European Games.