President Aliyev hails winners of Nanjing Summer Youth Olympic Games
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has received members of the national team who successfully participated in the second Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.
The head of state congratulated the athletes and their coaches.
"It is a truly great victory," he said addressing the athletes. "Our team finished as the tenth with 12 medals, including five gold medals. We are the sixth among European and the first among Muslim countries. Given that these games brought together more than 200 teams, everyone can see, of course, that this is really a great and historic victory."
He went on saying that Azerbaijan is a sporting nation, a point which is noted by leaders of the international Olympic movement.
"Our country has great sporting successes. Each year our athletes win hundreds of medals at various international sports competitions. The European and world championships held in Azerbaijan widely promote sports in our country, attract children, teenagers and young people to sports clubs, thereby ensuring continuity," the president said.
President Aliyev stressed that a great deal of attention is being paid to the development of youth sports. "The development of sport in any country is determined precisely by youth sport. It is necessary to conduct proper selection work. Training, professionalism of coaches and, of course, a focused sports policy are the key conditions here. All of these factors - young talented athletes, professional coaches and proper coordination between the agencies in charge of sports are available in Azerbaijan," he said.
"Representatives of the International Olympic Committee always emphasize that the National Olympic Committee, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, federations, sports associations and clubs operate systemically and as one team in Azerbaijan, and this is the main reason for the success," he stressed.
The head of state noted that wonderful sports facilities meeting the highest standards have been built and are still under construction in Baku. Modern Olympic centers have been created in all regions and the influx of athletes to these centers has been ensured.
"The creation of the sports infrastructure and our overall policy of promoting sports as an important factor in Azerbaijani society are yielding fruit. We certainly have great expectations about the future and we are confident that our athletes will please us even more," he added.
"The Azerbaijani youth is a source of our pride," President Aliyev stressed.
Azerbaijan is preparing for a major sporting event - European Games that will be held next year.
"Holding of these Games have been entrusted to Azerbaijan. It is a tremendous responsibility and a great achievement of Azerbaijani sport because the decision to conduct the Games in Azerbaijan was based on a number of factors, such as Azerbaijan's development, the availability of the sports and service infrastructure, the creation of a modern transport system and the overall rate of economic growth were taken into account. At the same time, a role in this was played by the performance of our athletes," he added.
"Our desire is to conduct these Games at the level of Summer Olympic Games. There are opportunities to do that. I have to note that in terms of the number of athletes and sports, these games are larger than the winter Olympics and are very close to the Summer Olympic Games," he said.
President Aliyev has also signed an Order to establish awards for these athletes and their coaches for their best results at the Summer Youth Olympic Games.
Under the Order, each athlete who won the first place will receive 50,000 manat, his coach - 25,000 manat, each athlete who became the second will receive 30,000 manat, his coach - 15,000 manat, each athlete who got bronze will receive 20,000 manat, his coach - 10,000 manat.
In the Nanjing Olympic Games, which brought together 3,888 athletes aged 15-18 in 29 sports from 204 countries Azerbaijan's team was represented by 21 athletes competed in nine events, namely athletics, shooting, judo, wrestling, taekwondo, swimming, boxing, archery and rowing.
Taekwondo fighter Said Guliyev, Greco-Roman wrestler Islambek Dadov, boxer Rufat Huseynov, freestyle wrestlers Teymur Mammadov and Igbal Hajizade claimed gold medals.
Female judo fighter Leyla Aliyeva, judo fighter Natig Gurbanli, female taekwondo fighter Ceren Ozbek, rower Boris Yotov, Greco-Roman wrestler Jabbar Najafov, female wrestler Leyla Gurbanova grabbed silver medals, while triple jumper Nazim Babayev won bronze for Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani athletes improved their results significantly at the second games. At the at the first Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010, Azerbaijan ended up with five gold and three silver medals ranking 11th.