Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Azerbaijan holds onto second place at the overall medal count on June 22 at the start of the eleventh day of the inaugural Baku 2015 European Games.

To date, the Azerbaijani national team has received 35 medals, 14 of which are gold and 14 are bronze, seven are silver medals.

The current unrivaled leader is Russia with whopping 77 medals, 40 of which are of gold! Germany comes in third with 31 medals so far, 10 gold. The rest of the top five includes Belarus with 33 medals, 8 gold, and Great Britain with 18 medals, 8 gold.

Azerbaijan added to its coin box with medals in gymnastics over the weekend.

Azerbaijani gymnast Oleg Stepko won five medals altogether at the European Games. Of those, one was gold, two silver and two bronzes.

The gold medal in the European Games was a result of serious and hard training, said Stepko who won a gold medal in artistic gymnastics parallel bars exercise on June 20.

Stepko ended up in second at the men's pommel horse and men's individual all-around, and third at men's vault.

Another Azerbaijani gymnast, Ilya Grishunin, grabbed the bronze medal in the men’s trampoline event on June 21.

Moreover, Azerbaijani gymnast Marina Durunda won silver medal in the women’s rhythmic gymnastics - individual ribbon on June 21.

On the 11th day of the competition, Azerbaijan will compete in athletics, badminton, boxing and sambo, shooting, and volleyball.

The Baku 2015 European Games is an innovative competition that has gathered over 6,000 athletes from 50 countries to compete in 20 sports. Twelve sports are officially recognized as qualifiers for 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

The magnificent opening ceremony of the Games delighted Azerbaijanis and showcased the history of the country to the world on June 12. The European Games will conclude on June 28.

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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar

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