UNDER ATTACK

In 2021, Azerbaijani sports heavily suffered from the pandemic attack. Therefore, some international competitions were postponed again. The only good news is that timely measures prevented the wide spread of the disease across the country. As required by the special lockdown regime, from March 2021, it was allowed to hold competitions in Azerbaijan without the participation of fans. Fans (50%) were only allowed to football matches, depending on the capacity of stadiums.

Start of reforms

In general, we can say that 2021 marked a new era in Azerbaijani sports. After the appointment of the President of European Gymnastics Federation, Farid Gayibov, as the new Minister of Youth and Sports, the long-awaited reforms in the national sport began. Most of the federations have held election and reporting sessions, adopting fundamental changes in important areas of sports.

The national football team again failed to please the fans though, although the silver medallist of the national championship, FC Garabagh, achieved a fairly high result. Having joined the UEFA Conference League for the first time, Gurban Gurbanov's team got qualified for the group stage of the tournament and made it to the playoffs. In the 1/16 stage, Garabagh’s rival will be Marseille (France). Thus, Garabagh went down in the history of Azerbaijani sports as the first local team to play in the playoffs of the UEFA Conference League.

Success in gymnastics

Azerbaijani gymnasts also took part at prestigious competitions this year. After winning silver medals at the European All-Around Championship, the national team demonstrated a successful performance in group exercises at the world championship in Sofia, Bulgaria, which was a qualification competition before the Tokyo Olympic Games. The team consisting of Zeynab Hummatova, Daria Sorokina, Maryam Safarova, Laman Alimuradova, and Yelizaveta Luzan became the second best team in the all-around competition. At the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championship held in Baku, Hummatova, Sorokina, Safarova, Alimuradova, and Luzan were awarded bronze medals for their performance with five balls.

On May 27-29, the 26th Aerobic Gymnastics World Championship was held for the first time in Baku. Representatives of Azerbaijan—the aerodance team consisting of European champions Akifa Kerimli, Nigar Ibrahimbeyli, Aykhan Ahmedli, Narmina Huseynova, Madina Mustafayeva, Elchin Mammadov, Imran Imranov, and Nurjan Jabbarly—became world champions, having the spectators listen to the State Anthem of the Republic of Azerbaijan at the National Gymnastics Arena!

The Azerbaijani national team won a bronze medal at the 11th World Age Group Competition in Geneva. On the last day of the tournament, the women's team consisting of Mansuma Mammadzade, Leyla Bashirova, and Nazrin Farmanova (12-19) took third place in the final stage of the mixed exercises program.

The European Acrobatic Gymnastics Championship, which took place after a two-year break, was also successful for our athletes. At the competition held in Pesaro, Italy on September 29-October 3, Azerbaijan was represented by Aghasif Rahimov and Raziya Seyidli (mixed adult duos), Murad Rafiyev and Daniel Abbasov (mail pairs), Mansuma Mammadzade, Leyla Bashirova, and Nazrin Farmanova (underage female trio). Our athletes from the women’s team won the bronze medals on the very first day of the championship after receiving 27,400 points for the tempo movements. They were followed by Aghasif and Raziya. With 86.470 points in mixed exercises, the gymnasts were awarded silver medals. On the last day of the competition, they won bronze medals in tempo exercises. And for the third time they raised the tricolor of Azerbaijan at the Vitrifrigo Arena in Pesaro.

Mikhail Malkin (Azerbaijan) won a silver medal at the 35th World Championship in Trampoline Gymnastics also held for the first time in Baku. The gold medal of the same tournament went to the trampoline player Magsud Magsudov in the age category of 13-14 years.

89 medals of wrestlers

At the 2021 Summer Olympic Games, World and European Championships, at the First CIS Games, Azerbaijani wrestlers were awarded a total of 89 medals (22 gold, 23 silver, and 44 bronze). Of the 40 medals won at the CIS Games held in Kazan, 16 went to our wrestlers. At the European Youth Championship and the U-23 World Championship, Azerbaijan took the third place by the number of medals. The senior Greco-Roman wrestling team also finished third in the team event at the World Championships in Oslo. Three of seven wrestlers returned to Baku with medals from the Olympic Games. Haji Aliyev won a silver medal, while Rafig Huseynov and Maria Stadnik were awarded bronze medals. In addition, Rafig became the world champion for the first time in his career.

Young wrestlers also lived up to the expectations in 2021. It is worth mentioning at least three of them. Greco-Roman wrestler Hasrat Jafarov (67 kg) became not only the European and world champion among the young athletes, but he also won the bronze medal of the continental championship and the gold medal of the world championship among wrestlers in the age category up to 23 years. He also became the winner of the First CIS Games. Silver medallist of the European Championship among adults, Turan Bayramov, also became a European champion and a bronze medallist of the World Championship among youth. The winner of the European Youth Championships, as well as the U-23 world championship, Jabrayil Hajiyev, won the silver medal of the World Youth Championship.

Chess, Karate, Boxing and Paralympians

At the First CIS Games held in Kazan, Azerbaijani athletes were awarded 60 medals in total (15 gold, 16 silver, and 29 bronze). Thus, Azerbaijan became the 4th and 5th best in terms of the denomination and number of medals won, respectively.

In chess, the greatest success has been achieved in club and national team competitions. The Vugar Gashimov Club won a bronze medal of the European Chess Clubs' Cup. Azerbaijani women's team also took the third place at the European Championship.

Our karatekas returned from Tokyo with two silver medals. Irina Zaretskaya was awarded gold medals at both the World and European Championships.

Another successful performer of 2021 was the Azerbaijani-Cuban athlete Alfonso Dominguez, who was awarded the bronze medal of the Tokyo Olympics. At the last competition of 2021, he received the title of a world champion.

The national Paralympian team of Azerbaijan demonstrated an outstanding result at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. In fact, it set a new record in the sports history of Azerbaijan, with 14 gold, 1 silver, and 4 bronze medals won at the tournament.

In general, the Azerbaijani national team performed poorly at the Tokyo 2020 Games. With 44 athletes, it has managed to win only seven medals (3 silver and 4 bronze). By the number of medals, Azerbaijani national team became the 33rd best team of the world among 205 other national teams.