FAIRY TALE COME TO LIFE

The World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship has recently ended in Baku. More than 300 gymnasts from 61 countries competed in the most prestigious tournament of the year during a week. The event that took place at the National Gymnastics Arena also revealed the names of athletes who became qualified for licenses of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. For the Azerbaijani national team, the championship was a real holiday.

Zohra Agamirova ensured the long-awaited success of the Azerbaijani team by winning a license for the Tokyo 2020 thanks to her individual programme. In group competitions, our winners were Aliya Pashayeva, Diana Ahmedbeyli, Daria Sorokina, Aishan Bayramova and Zeynab Hummatova. After a long and thorny path to the goal, our girls managed to reach the final stage of the world championship.

In general, the Baku championship has become for many teams one of the most memorable events of the year. Fans from different countries gathered in Baku to embark on a seven-day journey into the world of fairy tales and support their favourites. The hall decorated with motives from oriental tales has witnessed not only professional performances, but also a spectacular ceremony.

The mascot of the competition was a frog named Gur-Gur, which was the most impressive character of the championship. The official mascot of the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation has become a favourite of all fans entertaining them with his jokes and interesting programs. Being held under a motto “Fairy tales will come to life”, the championship really became a reality leaving behind a sense of responsibility, competition, exciting moments of expectations, and tears of joy and sadness for the successes and failures of athletes.

The opening ceremony of the championship, which was attended by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the head of the National Olympic Committee Ilham Aliyev, the country's First Vice-president and President of the Gymnastics Federation of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva and their family members, gave the audience an unforgettable experience. Miri Yusif, world-famous singer, the Honoured Artist of Azerbaijan and a celebrity ambassador of the world championship, performed the song “Be the first!” written specifically for this tournament. The opening ceremony was continued by the entertaining show Oriental Tale with the participation of 200 athletes and their trainers. The grandiose performance ended with a song performed by the National Artist of Azerbaijan Emin Agalarov.

In addition to the high level of organization of the event, the main attention was paid to the performance of Azerbaijani gymnasts. Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation previously stated that the purpose of their participation is to obtain licenses for Tokyo 2020. Thanks to intensive training, our team has reached the goal. One of the winners of the tournament was Zohra Agamirova with her individual program. It is interesting that Agamirova, who made her debut at the world championship last year, became the 16th strongest athlete of the world. On the final day of the championship, Zohra Agamirova demonstrated professional performance with a ball, clubs, a hoop and a ribbon. She took the fourth place in her group with 78.725 points and officially became a participant of the Tokyo 2020.

In group competitions, the Azerbaijani team also achieved the goal. Diana Ahmedbeyli, Aliya Pashayeva, Aishan Bayramova, Zeynab Hummatova and Daria Sorokina performed both compositions perfectly with a total of 53,100 points. Thus, our athletes secured a license for the Tokyo Olympics. By the way, the achievement of the national team in group competitions ensured Azerbaijan's participation in the Olympic Games after a 12-year break.

The head coach of the Azerbaijani rhythmic gymnastics team, Mariana Vasileva, is satisfied with the performances of her students. “I would like to congratulate the First Vice-President of Azerbaijan and the President of the Gymnastics Federation Mehriban Aliyeva and express to her and the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev great thanks for the support during the opening ceremony of the championship. We are proud that they are always with us. Even when they were not in the hall, we felt their support. We are glad that made them happy with our results. We will work even harder,” Vasileva said.

Speaking about the licenses of Azerbaijani gymnasts for the Tokyo-2020, Vasileva noted that this was a great success and the mission was accomplished in full: “We knew that that we could not win two licenses in an individual program. All our gymnasts are young. Two of them performed at the championship for the first time. Of course, we hoped for the success of Zohra Agamirova, since she is the most experienced of my students. Last year, she also participated at the world championship and took the 24th place. Now she has 16th place and an Olympic license. We are very proud of Zohra also because she is one of the rare young athletes with such a powerful psychological setup to win and endure the competition. She is regularly working on herself. I think that she will be even more successful in the future. As for the group competitions of our team, I am very satisfied indeed. It was very important to us. They say that home arena help. But performing in the home arena also means more responsibility. It was difficult for our girls too. They tried to perform as best as possible to please their fans. By the way, I also thank our fans for their support. It is no secret that Azerbaijan has created its own school of rhythmic gymnastics. We are very happy. This shows that we are on the right track.”

Morinare Watanabe, President of the International Gymnastics Federation, thanked Azerbaijan for the excellent organization of the World Cup: “I thank the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation and the local organisation committee for the high level of organisation of the event. I also want to thank the official ambassador of the world championship, Yana Batyrshina, for promoting gymnastics for the next generation of athletes. We will be glad to see you all in Tokyo next year to watch and live yet another Olympic fairy tale. As always, we have witnessed perfect competition and an unforgettable world championship. Seven days is a considerable time in order to show one's skills. I am grateful to the organisers, who made each of these seven days an unforgettable memory,” Mr. Watanabe said.