HOME GROUND IS BEST

"The Old Lady" of Europe has long tried to organise a major Olympic-type competition, in which the best sportspeople of the Old World could take part.  Europe has long lagged behind in holding a universal games. Since 1951 the Pan-American and Asian Games have been held every four years, and since 1965 the All-Africa Games. For a long time people just thought about plans for holding European Games. But any idea can be realised, if everything is worked out properly and the right person is found to manage it. As a result, in 2012 the European Olympic Committee took the decision to hold the European Games, and Baku received the right to hold them in 2015.

The 17 days of the First European Games in Baku flew by, but left a big and weighty mark on European sport and the history of Azerbaijan. More than 6,000 sportspeople from 50 countries competed in 20 types of sport. Two hundred and 53 sets of awards were won.

All in all, the types of sports represented at the European Games may be divided into two categories - Olympic and non-Olympic sports. Sixteen types of sports from the Olympic family were represented in Baku; the competitions in some types of sports were aimed at allocating licences for participation in the Summer Olympic Games which are to take place in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. These were archery, beach volley-ball, cycling, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo and the triathlon.

This has meant that there was heightened interest among the competitors and a hard-fought struggle in these types of sports and countries were striving to make the most of their strongest sportsmen in these sports. Therefore the heat was really on in these competitions with every competitor trying to squeeze the absolute maximum out of his or her performance.

Types of sports were presented at the Games which are not included in the Olympic family at the moment. These are also karate, beach football and sambo wrestling. Even though these are not Olympic sports, they are extremely popular in Azerbaijan.

Let us try and assess the standard of competition in several of the sports represented at the European Games in Baku.

Wrestling

Twenty-four sets of medals were won in the wrestling. There was no European wrestling championship this year, so practically all the strongest wrestlers came to Baku. These competitions confirmed that the Russian, Azerbaijani and Turkish teams, which won all 16 medals, remain the trend-setters in men's free-style wrestling and Greco-Roman wrestling in Europe. In particular, the Russian wrestlers took 10 gold medals in Baku, the Azerbaijani wrestlers won four "golds" and another two "golds" went to Turkey. 

In the women's free-style wrestling the gold medals were won by sportswomen from eight countries, of which two "golds" went to representatives of Azerbaijan and Hungary. Twenty-three countries won medals in wrestling, seven of them "golds". The Russian team came first in the unofficial team score with 18 medals (11 gold, two silver and five bronze), and Azerbaijan came second with 15 medals (six gold, two silver and seven bronze). It is understandable that Azerbaijan, as the organiser of the Games, was interested in the wrestling tournament being the high-point of the Games, and this aim was achieved.

Boxing

The boxing tournament managed to gather a sufficiently strong group of competitors. Naturally, not all the teams sent their main members to the tournament, but nevertheless most of the fights were quite entertaining and fast-moving. Medals were won in 10 of the men's weight categories and in five of the women's weight categories. The outcome of the men's tournament was that Azerbaijani boxers won six gold medals, which was the biggest surprise of the tournament. In total, the Azerbaijani masters of the leather glove won nine medals, including one "silver" and two "bronzes". Russian male boxers won another two gold medals, adding to them two "silvers" and a "bronze". Ireland and Great Britain each added a "gold" to their collection. All in all, sportsmen from 14 countries took away medals from the boxing tournament. 

Russian sportswomen who were members of their main team at the Games in Baku took away with them two of the five gold medals. Great Britain, Ireland and Holland each added a "gold" to their collection. Women from 11 countries managed to win medals, including two "bronzes" which the Azerbaijani team added to their winnings.

Judo

A special surprise had been prepared for the judokas at the European Games in Baku. The judo competitions were simultaneously regarded as the European Championship. Therefore the winners in the Games in Baku immediately received two medals, one as a prize-winner in the European Games, and the second as a prize-winner in the European Championship. Besides this, the judo programme included competitions for para-Olympians. Azerbaijani para-Olympians took excellent advantage of this opportunity, winning three medals (one gold, one silver and one bronze), and Ilham Zakiyev, twice champion in the Para-Olympic Games and many times World and European champion, added the European Games "gold" to his own collection. 

Unlike that of the para-Olympians, the performance of the Azerbaijani judokas can only be described as a fiasco. Only one silver medal was won, the incomprehensible fight leading to exclusion in the first bout as a rule; this is what the Azerbaijani judokas will be remembered for. Moreover, Elmar Qasimov, who was the standard-bearer for the Azerbaijani team at the opening of the European Games in Baku, was no "different" from his fellow team members either. 

The sportsmen from Germany (11) and Russia (10) took the most medals in the judo tournament. But Germany only won one "gold", while Russia took three. Sportsmen from France and Holland took three "golds" each at the tournament, and Georgian judokas added two gold medals to their collection. All in all, sportsmen from 13 countries, from six teams, won "golds" in the judo tournament.

Gymnastics

The gymnastics competitions were held in five types of gymnastics: artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline, acrobatic and aerobic gymnastics. Thirty-four sets of awards were won. As expected, Russia took first place in the overall team score, adding 29 medals, 18 of them gold, to its collection. The Azerbaijani gymnastics team won seven medals, including one "gold", three "silvers" and three "bronzes". Sportsmen from 20 countries won medals in the gymnastics tournament, sportsmen from 11 countries taking "golds" away with them.

Swimming

The swimming tournament at the Summer Olympic Games is one of the most popular and medal-intensive. Forty-two sets of medals are won at the Olympics. The swimming tournament at the European Games in Baku, however, was not so interesting. This was due to the World Water Sports Championship which is starting in Kazan [Tatarstan, Russia] at the end of July. For this reason, all the leading swimmers gave the competitions in Baku a miss, and only sportsmen under the age of 18 years were represented. Thus, the 42 sets of medals won in Baku, were in these circumstances too many, all the more so since the Azerbaijani swimmers are for the moment guided by the principle that "it is not important to win, but to take part".

If we take the swimming tournament, the Russian team took first place, winning 42 medals, including 23 gold. The Russian swimmer Mariya Kameneva may be called the queen of the swimming pool for setting the absolute record in the number of medals she won at the First European Games. Kameneva won nine medals - six gold, two bronze and one silver. Two other Russian swimmers, Arina Openisheva and Polina Yegorova, who won seven and six gold medals respectively, can share the laurels of queen of the pool with her.

All in all, swimmers from 18 countries, from 10 teams, won gold medals.

Shooting

The shooting tournament in Baku also gathered almost all the strongest shooters who won 19 sets of medals and passes to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The Italians achieved the best result among the shooters and were awarded 10 medals, including four gold ones. Serbian shooters also took four "golds", but no other medals, while the German team added three "golds" to their collection. Sportsmen from 20 countries won medals in the shooting tournament, "golds" being taken by shooters from 10 countries. Unfortunately, Azerbaijani sportsmen have not yet reached a standard whereby they can compete for medals in shooting.

Rowing

Rowing competitions at the European Games were only held in kayaks and canoes as academic rowing was not included in the Games' programme. Nevertheless, the composition of the competitors was a representative one. The rowers won 15 sets 

of medals. The Hungarian rowers, who won 10 medals, five of them gold, in Mingacevir, topped the overall score for kayak and canoe rowing. But Germany and Belarus added three "golds" each to their collections and Serbia two. Medals in this type of sport were won by sportsmen from 16 countries. Azerbaijan only added one silver medal to its winnings.

Team sports

Medals were won in several types of team sports at the European Games in Baku. These were water polo, volley-ball, 3 x 3 basket-ball, archery and fencing. Unfortunately, Azerbaijan is not especially good at team sports yet. At the Games in Baku certain hopes were pinned on the women's volley-ball and men's 3 x 3 basket-ball, but neither team managed to win any medals. The volley-ball players came closest to getting a medal. But in the semi-finals and the match for the third place they lost to the Turks and Serbs in the fifth decisive set. As far as the basket-ball players are concerned, they got as far as the quarter final sufficiently confidently, where they lost to the future finalists, the Spanish team, in a hard-fought struggle and not without errors on the part of the referee.

In other team sports right from the start the Azerbaijani team had little chance of winning medals. In actual fact, it is difficult for Azerbaijan to get together a competitive team in such sports as water polo, men's volley-ball and fencing.

Russian sportsmen took first place in the team sports. In particular, the Russians won "gold" in the men's and women's basket-ball, the women's water polo and in the women's fencing tournament. Germans won both the women's and men's volley-ball and Serbia the men's water polo. In the fencing team competitions the winners were Great Britain (men's foil), France (men's sabre), Italy (men's epee), Romania (women's sabre) and Ukraine (women's epee). The Italian team won most medals in the fencing tournament, adding 12 (three gold, two silver and seven bronze) to their collection. Medals were won by 11 countries, among them Azerbaijan which added a "silver" and a "bronze" (women's sabre) to its collection, won by the Bunyatova sisters.

The medal count

As expected, the Russian team won the medal count, with a big gap moreover. At the European Games in Baku the Russian sportsmen won a total of 164 medals, 79 of them gold. No other country competing in the Games was able to win a total of 

so many medals, and as many "golds" as Russia did. There is nothing surprising in this. The Russian Federation had the largest number of competitors, and the Russians dominated in many types of sport. So, the Russian team was able to do what it will not manage to do at the Summer Olympics. No-one is surprised at the domination of a single country at continental competitions. The USA, for example, dominates at the Pan-American Games, while China dominates at the Asian Games. Therefore the distribution of forces in the medal count at the European Games needs to be perceived simply as a fact. The Russians won 32 per cent of the gold medals and 19.5 per cent of all the medals won in Baku.

It is another matter that the Azerbaijani team taking second place came as a surprise. An achievement like that on the part of the Azerbaijani sportsmen was rather unexpected. The sportsmen won 56 medals, 21 of them "gold", 15 "silvers" and 20 "bronzes". Before the European Games, most of the experts and sports officials had counted on Azerbaijan being in the best five or 10 teams. It was expected that the sportsmen would be able to win 25-30 medals, of which 8-10 would be gold ones. But the Azerbaijani sportsmen exceeded all the wildest expectations.

No-one expected so many gold medals: six from the boxers, three from the taekwondista, four from the karatists and six from the wrestlers. In each of these types of sport the sportsmen took more medals than had been predicted before the Games. The "on home ground" factor undoubtedly had a positive effect on the final result.

 Besides this, such non-Olympic types of sport as karate and sambo wrestling, which were included in the Games' programme largely owing to the interests of Azerbaijan, added 14 medals to the team's collection. A year before Rio the successful performance of Azerbaijani sportsmen in such medal-intensive Olympic types of sport as wrestling, boxing, taekwondo and gymnastics, cannot fail to be pleasing. On the other hand, rivals will have got a better idea of the potential of our boys and girls. Many of them are no longer dark horses and are becoming, if not favourites, then potentially strong rivals to sportspeople from other countries. This factor needs to be taken into account when coaching our sportsmen for the Games in Brazil.

Great Britain's sportsmen took third place in the medal score, based on the number of gold medals, winning 47 medals (18 gold, 10 silver and 19 bronze).

If we take the total number of medals, irrespective of their value, then the second place goes to the sportsmen of Germany who have 66 medals to their name (16 gold, 17 silver and 33 bronze).

It should be mentioned that the representatives of 42 countries won medals at the European Games in Baku, and sportsmen from 31 countries took gold medals away with them.

On the whole, it may be noted that the European sports festival went off gloriously. It embraced everything that is valued in the world of sport - intrigue, sportsmen's triumphs, the tension of the competition, the interest of the spectators, the fiasco of the favourites and the victory of those who were not expected to achieve such results.

Therefore the European Games have good prospects, and the Games in Baku should become a good springboard for them. Naturally, the number of types of sport represented at the Games and the standard of the competitors will change. The European Olympic Committee (EOC) still has a lot of work ahead in order to harmoniously insert the European Games into the calendar of all the sports federations. They need to avoid a repetition of the situation with the swimming, where only junior sportsmen were represented and with light athletics where only one set of medals was won, since all the light athletics elite are training for the World Championships in China in August.

In this respect, the example of the judo competition format could be followed whereby the European Games in Baku were simultaneously regarded as the European Championship. This experience can be taken advantage of with regard to other types of sport. This would drastically boost the status of the Games and would act as an incentive to the best sportspeople to compete in them. So, after it has decided in which country the Second European Games is to be held, the EOC should have talks with the individual federations in order to synchronise the diaries.

But the First European Games in Baku have already become history, history that was written by us and which will remain unparalleled for ever…