WOMEN GYMNASTS MAKE HISTORY

The Azerbaijani national rhythmic gymnastics team has opened a new page in its history. The team had never before won three medals at a European championship, but the Baku competition changed all that. The team took silver in the overall standings, another silver was won by the junior team in the group exercise, while Anna Qurbanova won bronze for her ball programme. 

Silver rain 

The national team established its own record on the second day of competition. It had never previously won silver at a European tournament. However, they did it in Baku. Thus our sportswomen improved on the results of two years ago when they won bronze, also in Baku. This result was achieved largely thanks to the skill of Aliya Qarayeva and Anna Qurbanova. Both achieved good scores - Aliya's composition with the ball was assessed at 27,350 points, while Anna's exercise with the skipping rope amassed 27,250. Anna deserves special mention - she has made tremendous progress on previous seasons and, together with Qarayeva, is considered to be a leader of our team. It is no wonder the coaches felt that Qurbanova was "on fire" and trusted her with the skipping rope composition, although this exercise was supposed to be performed by Zeynab Cavadli.

"We have achieved a good result and performed to our maximum," Anna said. The gymnast said she was performing for the fans, coaches and all her admirers, whose support is very important to her. As for Aliya, she thanked the leadership of the national federation and its president Mehriban Aliyeva, who has contributed much to the development of rhythmic gymnastics in Azerbaijan.

A high assessment of the host country's performance was also given by the president of the Russian federation of rhythmic gymnastics and head coach of the Russia team, Irina Viner. She said Azerbaijan deserved silver, because its sportswomen performed very well. "I remember Dinara Qimatova performing in Division C in the European Championship. The Azerbaijan team has made great progress in a short period," Viner said.

Talking about the new rules, Viner said they were quite progressive but could still be modernized. "One of our training sessions before leaving for Baku was attended by the famous ballet-dancer Maya Plisetskaya. She watched us for over six hours and acknowledged that it was thanks to rhythmic gymnastics that ballet had made so much progress. It is very important that artistic impression is also being assessed now," Viner added.

Azerbaijan's junior team made the headlines in the first half of the final day of competition, winning its first medal in this prestigious tournament. They finished fourth in Euro-2007, while this time they came second. After the team had made it to the final, head coach Mariana Vasilyeva said her team stood a great chance of performing even better in the last eight. And so it did, as confirmed by the 25,650 points the team collected. And although our team's performance was followed by four others, there was a feeling that a medal was well-deserved.

After the performance both gymnasts and the head coach couldn't help crying. This is understandable - it had taken so many long months of training. At a news conference Vasilyeva said the team had made several mistakes during a rehearsal just 10 days before, but had managed to rectify them in the time left before the competition. "It is good that there were problems then, otherwise the girls would have felt complacent. Yes, the result is a good one, but we will carry on working," she said. At the same time, Vasilyeva stressed that the home crowd had been great. "We knew that we couldn't let the people down. And I am very happy that the girls won the medal. Also, the team never thought about the score while performing. If you perform well, the result will follow," the coach noted. 

Compliments from Dimitropulos 

In winning a bronze medal in the ball activity, Anna Qurbanova provided an effective finale to the performance of our team at Euro-2009. She took 27,850 points for her performance and was beaten only by the Beijing Olympic champion, Yevgeniya Kanayeva from Russia, and world champion Anna Bessonova from Ukraine. In fact, the Baku championship was dominated by Kanayeva, who won gold in all four activities. 

Meanwhile, Qarayeva, who became European champion in the skipping rope exercise two years ago, was just one step away from the victory podium in three exercises and could not show her best in the individual standings. "I wanted to compete for medals again, but this time I wasn't so lucky. However, we shouldn't forget that, compared with the competition of two years ago, when we came third in the team standings, we came second this time. This is a great result. I am very happy for Qurbanova. Her medal is well-deserved. Besides, the European championship has become a major event in rhythmic gymnastics, as it starts a new Olympic cycle. So everything is starting from scratch," Aliya said. There is no doubt that, given her potential, the sportswoman will improve.

A few interesting names appeared at Euro-2009. For example, Melitina Stanyuta from Belarus, Alina Maksimenko from Ukraine and Silviya Miteva from Bulgaria may soon compete with the recognized world leaders. Our sportswomen thus need to be prepared for hard competition, even though our team is progressing steadily. This is confirmed by the head of the European rhythmic gymnastics union, Dimitrios Dimitropulos. "The Azerbaijan team is one of the top five teams, and the level the team has reached over the last five to six years is truly amazing. Not very long ago the team was taking its first steps in rhythmic gymnastics, but now it is among the world leaders. This is an outstanding achievement. I want to thank my Azerbaijani colleagues, and the Azerbaijani Government, for the attention they have given to the sport," Dimitrop-ulos said.

The UEG president acknowledged that the organization was ready to hold European championships in Baku every year. "This is not just our dream. Two years ago, during a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the head of state himself proposed this initiative. And we are very glad that Euro-2009 has been held in Baku," he said. Thus the European championship will certainly return to Baku, especially since Baku has become home to gymnasts arriving for competitions of the highest level. This was agreed by almost all the leading sportswomen. World champion Anna Bessonova, for example, from Ukraine, acknowledged that she is always pleased to come here because of the very special atmosphere in which tournaments are held. "The local audience is great, they know rhythmic gymnastics very well. And when in Baku I always enjoy the support of the crowd. Besides, Azerbaijani gymnasts are making tremendous progress. They have achieved a lot in this competition," Bessonova said.

Meanwhile, there is a World Championship in Japan due in September. So there is no room for complacency. To perform well in the land of the rising sun, it is necessary to train even harder. This, however, is nothing unusual for our sportswomen, because they have gained results from which they can move forward.