RECORD GOLD

The 31st European Acrobatic Gymnastics Championship in Varna, Bulgaria was a significant event for Azerbaijan. Our athletes showed a record result at the continental competition, making the Azerbaijani anthem play 7 times in their honour.

This year's championship attended by 105 adult and 144 young gymnasts from 21 countries was the most successful tournament in the history of the national sport. Indeed, the Azerbaijani national team managed to literally conquer Europe, with 7 gold and 2 silver medals won in acrobatic gymnastics.

Success and failure

The adult group of the national team was represented by the mixed pair Aghasif Rahimov-Razia Seyidli. The women's group consisted of Nazrin Farmanova, Aynur Yusufova, Lala Huseynova. The men's pair was represented by Daniel Abbasov and Murad Rafiyev. The junior group included Nazrin Zeyniyeva, Zahra Rashidova and Anahita Bashiri.

Thanks to brilliant performances in Varna, the experienced athletes—the mixed pair of silver medallists of the world and European championships Aghasif Rahimov-Razia Seyidli—managed to get three gold medals for the national team (tempo - 28.910, balance - 29.180, all-around - 86.620 points).  On their way to the top medal they defeated their counterparts from Ukraine and Germany, who became the second and third best after three programmes, respectively.

Azerbaijani men's pair, two-time world championship bronze medallists and European junior champions Daniel Abbasov and Murad Rafiyev, repeated the success of their teammates, climbing to the top step of the podium three times. They left behind their rivals in all programmes (tempo - 27.510, balance - 28.230, all-around - 82.370 points).

In the balance exercise, Abbasov and Rafiyev outperformed the representatives of Spain (2nd), and Great Britain (bronze medallists). In tempo and all-around exercises, they defeated their rivals from Spain and Portugal.  Thanks to this result, the Abbasov-Rafiyev pair became a European champion among adult pairs for the first time in the history of Azerbaijani gymnastics.

Young athletes from Azerbaijan also demonstrated skilful and confident performance. Nazrin Zeyniyeva, Zahra Rashidova and Anahita Bashiri won one gold and two silver medals. The gymnasts brought the national team a silver medal in tempo (27.440) and then repeated that success in all-around (83.690). In the balance exercise, however, the gymnasts managed to surpass all their rivals and beat the representatives of Britain and the Netherlands. 

Unfortunately, the new line-up of adult gymnasts from Azerbaijan could not get any medals. At the qualification stage, they were tenth in balance (25.360) and eleventh in tempo (24.670) and all-around (72.370).

Tribute to the memory of the fallen and the veterans

"Every opponent was strong. I'm happy that we outperformed them and won the continental competition. In 2019, I became the European champion in Israel. We dedicated our success and the medal we received that year to our soldiers who died in the April 2016 battles. And now we dedicate these medals to all our fallen and veteran soldiers and officers who gave their lives during the liberation of Karabakh," Murad Rafiyev (gold) shared his impressions of the victory with R+.

According to another gold medallist of the European championship, Aghasif Rahimov, "the competition went as we had planned. The competing teams were also strong. But we believed in our victory. The Azerbaijani team is already a favourite of prestigious tournaments. Our country pays much attention to gymnastics, and it is successfully developing. We did our best to win these competitions. Hard and intensive training this year was not in vain - the result is obvious."

Vice-president of the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation Altay Hasanov met with the national team that achieved great success at the European Acrobatic Gymnastics Championships in Varna, Bulgaria. He congratulated the team on the outstanding result and wished them success in the next competitions.

In addition, Azerbaijani trampoline gymnasts also achieved unprecedented success at the 37th Trampoline Gymnastics and Tumbling World Championship in Great Britain. The first historical success was the Azerbaijan men's tumbling team. For the first time in the history of national gymnastics, Mikhail Malkin, Tofig Aliyev, Adil Hajizade, and Elnur Mammadov won a gold medal in the team event at the World Tumbling Championship.

Azerbaijani gymnasts finished the qualifying round first, with 168,700 points and 13 points ahead of athletes from Denmark, USA and Portugal as well as the host country, Great Britain, in the final stage of the tournament.

Another medal was brought to Azerbaijan by the team leader, experienced gymnast Mikhail Malkin. The silver medallist of the 2021 world championship in Baku, received 31.100 points in the final and became the strongest athlete in tumbling for the first time in the history of Azerbaijani gymnastics. Now he enjoys being a world champion.