FIRST MEDAL IN GYMNASTICS

Five-times medallist of the European Games in Baku, Oleg Stepko has achieved another success in his sporting career. At the World Championships in Scotland, Azerbai-jan's leading gymnast justified everyone's hopes him by winning a medal and qualifying for the summer Olympics. 

Stepko won the first World Gymnastics Championships medal in the history of independent Azerbaijan in the parallel bars exercise. And in the last of the exercises he had to perform first, which is always psychologically tough for an athlete. However, despite this, he performed the exercise splendidly and won the admiration of both spectators and judges. Scoring 15,966 points, he was only 0.1 point behind the Ukrainian gymnast, Oleh Ver-nyayev (16,066 points), who took second place. Stepko's performance in his favourite discipline - the parallel bars - once again emphasized his strength. This result assured his qualification for the 2016 summer Olympic Games. 

Also, Azerbaijan could be represented by two athletes in gymnastics for the first time at the Olympics. Although Stepko scored highly in the combined event at the World Championships, he was not among the medallists but ensured that one athlete from Azerbaijan would be participating in the qualifying tournament in April next year.

Oleg Stepko, bronze medallist of the World Championships, shared his impressions in an interview with R+: "Competition at the World Champion-ships was extremely high and any mistake could prove costly. The qualifying nature of the tournament was an extra incentive for all the gymnasts. After the good results we achieved at the first European Games, the main aim was to qualify for the summer Olympics in Brazil. I'm please we managed to achieve that goal."

Looking back at the championships, Stepko also said how difficult it was to have to go first in the final: "It is always extremely tough psychologically. The competition gets keener every year. Whereas at last year's World Championships an athlete who scored 16 points took first place, this year all the first three gymnasts scored 16. Gymnastics is developing and a lot of people are coming along who are highly trained. Take, for example, the Cuban, who I have only seen at the Pan-American Games. Now he is in the top three in the World Champion-ships. I didn't expect it to be easy. After all, it was the last chance to qualify for the Olympics."

The five-times winner of the first European Games also pointed out the rapid development of all types of gymnastics in Azerbaijan: "Azerbaijani gymnastics is approaching world standards. People are beginning to respect us and reckon with us. That's a great feeling. But we have no intention of resting on our laurels. There are major competitions ahead and we intend to as well as we possibly can at every tournament."

Stepko also spoke about preparations for the gymnastics tournament for the World Cup in the Challenge Cup series which will be held in Baku in February next year: "This is a very prestigious tournament. It will also be held in our home city, so right now preparing for it is a priority. Also, we mustn't forget about the Olympics. This is extremely important for us and we shall try to do the best we can."

Stepko said that this year was not only successful, but also very tough and intensive: "The year was tough not just for me but for the whole Gymnastics Federation. If there were no federation and I had no chief coach, we wouldn't have achieved the results we did. We shall continue to work and aim to improve the standard of gymnastics in Azerbaijan. There will be a number of important competitions early next year. After taking part in them we shall be concentrating all our attention on the summer Olympics."

Oleg Stepko's coach and chief coach of the Azerbaijani squad, Pavel Netreba, was satisfied with his pupil's performance: "Stepko gave a worthy performance. The World Champion-ships are an extremely difficult competition involving the world's top athletes. I would like to point out that Oleg was only 0.1 point away from second place, which is a very small margin. He could have been in the running for first and second places, and I think he will in the future. I am very satisfied with the result. But we don't intend to sit back, so we must work even harder. 2016 will be a difficult and a crucial year. We shall try to be worthy representatives of Azerbaijan at the summer Olympics."

Before Oleg Stepko, the others who earned the right to take part in the Rio Olympics were Marina Durunda (rhythmic gymnastics), Nazim Babayev, Hayle Ibrahimov and Anna Skidan (athletics, hammer), Inna Osipenko-Radomskaya (kayak, 500-m and 200-m), Valentin Demyanenko (canoeing, 200m), Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Boris Yotov (university rowing, 200m), Yuriy Meglich (canoeing-slalom), boxers Elvin Mamiszada (52 kg), Albert Salimov (60 kg) and Parviz Bagirov (69 kg), Greco-Roman wrestlers Elvin Mursaliyev (75 kg), Sabah Shariati (130 kg), Rovsan Bayramov (59 kg) and Saman Tahmasib (85 kg), women wrestlers Maria Stadnik (48 kg), Anzhela Dorogan (53 kg) and Yuliya Ratkevich (58 kg) and freestyle wrestlers Togrul Asgarov (65 kg), Magomedgadji Khatiyev (86 kg), Hetaq Gazyumov (97 kg) and Ca-maladdin Magomedov (125 kg).