Sumgayit hosts open championship on bullet shooting
By Victoria Moiseyeva
The second open championship on bullet shooting was held in Paralympic Sports Complex in Sumgayit, which was organized with the assistance of the Council of State Support to non-governmental organizations under the auspices of the Azerbaijani president.
The competition was held in the framework of the project "Life without barriers". Participants of Olympic and Paralympic Games attended the event. Among women, the victory was celebrated by Irada Gashimova (377 points), second and third place were won by Elena Taranova (373 points) and Ziba Mehtiyeva (371 points) respectively. Among men, Kamran Zeynalov gained the leading place (571 points), the second place was won by Akbar Muradov (559 points) and the third place by Zakir Beytulov (556 points).
Bullet shooting has rich history in Azerbaijan. In the former Soviet Union, the first qualified bullet shooting center was established in 1920, on Nargin Island. Azerbaijan's trained marksmen were participants of Olympiads in the composition of the USSR national team and several times became champions of the European and World championships.
Later, national athlete Irada Ashumova became the winner of bronze medal at 28th Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. In addition, Irada Ashumova won the second place with small caliber pistol at the World Championships held in Barcelona (Spain) in 1998, and Lahti (Finland) in 2002.
Moreover, shooting sport masters Albert Udachin, Anatoliy Spivakov, Diana Osoliker have made success in the World and European championships.