Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The National Olympic Committee held another traditional meeting with the Azerbaijani athletes of the 1st Baku European Games on June 19.

The winners, including gold medalist taekwondo fighter Milad Beigi Harchegani (80kg), silver medalist taekwondo fighter Farida Azizova (67kg), bronze medalist wrestlers Haji Aliyev (61kg), Ruslan Dibirgadzhiyev (70kg) and Jamaladdin Magomedov (125kg) were awarded valuable gifts.

"The European Games’ gold medal was my dream, which I tried to realize. I'm glad that I did it. All the fights were very hard, and my rivals were also very strong. But I proved that I can beat any opponent," said taekwondo fighter Ayhan.

Azad Rahimov, the youth and sports minister, Chingiz Huseynzade, the vice-president of the NOC, as well as Olympic champions Farid Mansurov and Namig Abdullayev attended the ceremony, congratulating Azerbaijani athletes with victory.

“Azerbaijani sportsmen have not achieved such success in international competitions so far. We are expecting more medals. The whole world see Azerbaijan’s achievements," Rahimov said.

Huseynzade, in turn, noted that all the delegations voice admiration of the high level organization of the first European Games in Baku.

Later, the athletes signed on the wall of emblematic fruits of pomegranate tree, symbolizing the gold, silver and bronze medal.

Represented by 291 athletes, Azerbaijan is participating in all sports at the Games, giving it an opportunity to win medals in all of the competitions.

Azerbaijani athletes show brilliant results at the Games. So far, the national team stands at the second place with 29 medals including 12 gold, five silver and 12 bronze medals, following Russia, which has 44 medals.

The European Games is the first-ever Games in the history of Europe that is currently underway in Baku from June 12, and running until June 28.

In total, 50 European countries bring around 6,000 athletes to compete in 20 sporting events. Of those sports, 16 are Olympic events, while the other four - karate, basketball 3x3, beach soccer and sambo - are new sports to this format.

The Games provide 253 medal events and opportunities in 12 sports to qualify for next year's Olympics in Rio.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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