SUMMER MEDALS

The attention of the whole world will be centred on the Olympic Games, whose opening ceremony was held at the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing, for the next couple of weeks. The games will open a new page in the history of Azerbaijani sports because our country arrived in China not merely to take part, but to win medals. And everything is in place for a successful performance at this prestigious tournament, which was proved by the first few days.

Elnur Mammadli becomes a pioneer

Judoist Elnur Mammadli (73 kg) won our first gold medal in Beijing. Having won five fights in a row, he won the judo tournament. He also ended the unlucky streak of Azerbaijani judoists since 1996. Before the Games, Elnur was regarded as one of the main favourives for the gold medal. He rapidly made his way into the elite of European judo, winning the European championship at the age of 18 in 2006. One year later, he won a silver medal at the world championship in Brazil, which helped him to win a place in the Olympics. Specialists will probably remember Elnur's performance in Beijing for a long time, but we can already say that his performance was a real decoration of the Games. There was an impression that performance in the Olympics was just a practice for him. In the final, Elnur was confronted by Korean Wang Ki-chun, with whom he had his own scores to settle. The rivals met in a decisive fixture of last year's world championship where the Asian sportsman gained a victory. But in Beijing Mammadli took revenge on the Korean. Thirteen seconds into the fight, Elnur had already beaten his rival. There is no doubt that Mammadli gained the victory he deserved. Many specialists were delighted with his performance, saying that the Azerbaijani judo school in the weight category of up to 73 kg was dominant. This victory was important for the chief coach of the Azerbaijani national team, Agayar Axundzada, as our sportsmen failed to win first places in the last three Games. However, the Olympics in Beijing showed that the Olympic champion of Barcelona 92, Nazim Huseynov, has a good follower who is only beginning his career. So Elnur may be even more successful in the next Games in London.

Sylver "classics"

Greco-Roman wrestlers Rovsan Bayramov (55 kg) and Vitaliy Rahimov (60 kg) won a silver medal each. They both performed quite confidently in the tournament, though their rivals were strong. Having beaten Egyptian Muhammad Mustafa in the first fight, Rovsan beat Cuban Yagnier Hernandez in the quarter finals. In the semi-finals, Bayramov encountered his "old friend" Roman Amoyan from Armenia. Everything began at the world championship in Baku last year. Rovsan beat him in the first fight then. Then they met at the European Championship 2008 in Tampere, where our sportsman won again. The fight at the Olympics was no exception as Bayramov successfully overcame the Armenian barrier and made it into the final.

In the final fight, Rovsan was confronted by Russian Nazir Mankiyev whom he beat at Euro 2008. This time the Russian was more successful and won the first half with a minimum score (4-3) and equalized in the last few seconds in the second half (2-2), becoming a champion. However, Bayramov has something to be proud of, because the Olympic silver costs a lot.

Rovsan's silver path was repeated by his team-mate Rahimov who began his performance at the Olympic Games by beating China's Yang Sheng and Romanian Eisebiu Diaconu. But perhaps, Vitaliy had his most difficult fight in the semi-finals where he confronted the two time Olympic champion and three time world champion, Armen Nazaryan, who represented Bulgaria. But Rahimov stood the test of stamina and won a place in the final to encounter Russian Islambek Albiyev. Despite all his efforts, Vitaliy failed to gain a single point in the final, and his rival gained a confident victory in the first half (2-0) and in the second half (4-0).

Our team has won increasing numbers of medals at each successive Olympics. While in Atlanta in 1996, our best achievement was the silver medal of freestyle wrestler Namiq Abdullayev, in Sydney we won more medals, of which two were gold. In Athens our sportsmen won five medals, of which Greco-Roman wrestler Farid Mansurov's was gold. And it is symbolic that he was the flag bearer of the Azerbaijani national team during the opening of the games - after all, our wrestler is one of the most promising candidates for a medal at the games.

It is notable that the number of sporting disciplines in which Azerbaijani sportsmen participate has also increased. In particular, the country is represented in equestrian sports at these games (by Camal Rahimov) for the first time in history, as also in rhythmic gymnastics. In total, 44 sportsmen from Azerbaijan will participate in Beijing, vying for medals in 11 disciplines. 

Luck, shape and psychological burden

The Olympic Games is a special event in which victory does not always goes to the best person. There are many components: handling psychological stress, staying in shape, simple luck and so on. Thus there are no favourites or outsiders and every participant is likely to surprise the audience. In addition, the Olympic motto, "participation, not victory, is important," is gradually becoming obsolete. For the vast majority of athletes, the trip to the games is an excellent opportunity not only to demonstrate their abilities, but also to earn quite good money. In Azerbaijan, for example, the reward for a gold medal winner at the games is AZN 600,000. So, the Olympians have an extra incentive to win medals. The China Hotel, where the Azerbaijani delegation will stay, has the advantage of being close to the sports facilities and bus stops. "We find it very comfortable and suitable and all the necessary steps are taken to make our delegation feel at home in Beijing. Rooms have been reserved for Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the same hotel," said Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Azad Rahimov. The state allocated AZN 3.15 million for preparations for the Olympic Games, of which AZN 2.3 million have already been spent. The air travel contract with the AZAL airline alone cost AZN 650,000. The minister noted that uniforms for the national team were manufactured by the renowned Slovenian firm Mura and cost 500,000 euro. "We selected from several different versions. Of course, the clothing should recall the colours of the national flag, but unfortunately these colours did not fit into the design. That is why we chose white suits with red neckties. I think that at the opening ceremony our team looked better than other delegations," the minister said.

He also told us that he is a fan of the Azerbaijani rider Camal Rahimov. "I believed in that guy and I am glad that he won his Olympic place. Just two riders have ever appeared at the Olympic Games at the age of 20: Camal's coach Nelson Pesoa and his son Rodrigo Pesoa. You know, equestrian sport is quite an expensive thing to practice and the Ministry alone would not be able to afford to fund the sportsman's participation in tournaments. If we did, teams from other disciplines would remain unfunded. That is why we are so thankful to the Heydar Aliyev Fund, which transferred 10,000 euro monthly for Camal. The fund also helped us to buy a new horse, which cost 1.97 million euro," said Mr. Rahimov. The minister noted that if our sportsman makes it to the finals of the Olympic tournament, he will try to make time to fly to Hong Kong to watch the riding competition. In the mean time, the judo wrestlers were the first Azerbaijani sportsmen to arrive in Beijing. As R+ has already reported, the team spent their initial acclimatization period in Kazakhstan near the Chinese border to be in good shape on the eve of the games. The training in Almaty was supportive and conditioned the judo wrestlers for their performance at the games.