Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The National Olympic Committee once again held a meeting to award the Azerbaijani winners of the 1st Baku European Games.

The ceremony which was held on June 23 was attended by Chingiz Huseynzada, the vice president of the NOC, Agadjan Abiyev, the first vice president of the Azerbaijani Boxing Federation, the secretary-general of the NOC and Olympic champions Nazim Huseynov, Namig Abdullayev and Farid Mansurov, who congratulated the winners and wished them good luck.

The committee awarded national sambo fighters Nazakat Khalilova (52kg), Islam Gasimov (57 kg) Amil Gasimov (74 kg) and Vasif Safarbekov (+100kg), who won silver medals on the 12th day of the competitions.

“Every year on June 23, the world marks the International Olympic Day, to commemorate the rebirth of the Olympic movement in its present form. We traditionally hold several events on this occasion annually. This year the day falls on the first European Games, which has already entered in the history of world sport. We are awaiting more victories from our athletes,” Huseynzada said.

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

The country started the 12th day of the competitions with 39 medals, 14 of which are gold, 11 are silver, and 14 are bronze. The host country follows Russia, which has holds an unbeatable 87 medals, 45 of which are gold. Germany is on the third place with 32 medals, 11 gold.

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

In total, 50 European countries have brought 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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