Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan’s First Lady, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva has been unanimously re-elected as the president of Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation at the 6th general meeting of the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation on December 24.

The agenda of the meeting included the election of the management staff of the Gymnastics Federation and a further action plan of the development of gymnastics in Azerbaijan.

During the meeting, Altay Hasanov was re-elected as vice president of the Gymnastics Federation.

MP Rauf Aliyev, head coach of Azerbaijan’s national rhythmic gymnastics team Mariana Vasileva and director of the Heydar Aliyev Sports and Exhibition Complex Rafig Behbudov were elected members of the Executive Committee of the Gymnastics Federation.

Rauf Aliyev and Rafig Behbudov have been re-elected for the fourth time, while Mariana Vasileva became a member of the Executive Committee for the first time.

At the event, Hasanov made a report on the work done in the field of gymnastics over the past period.

Then a group of distinguished gymnasts and coaches were awarded commemorative medals for the achievements made in the first European Games, continental and world Championships.

2015 was a successful year for the Azerbaijani Gymnastics for a number of significant milestones.

The national gymnasts have had many successes in both domestic and international competitions repeatedly winning the highest results.

Many of them brought first-ever medals to the country like male gymnast Oleg Stepko, who for the first time in the history of Azerbaijan won bronze medal at the World Championships in the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics competition.

Moreover two of the Azerbaijani gymnast Marina Durunda and Oleg Stepko obtained a license to compete at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.

Azerbaijani gymnasts demonstrated brilliant performances during the first European Games held in Baku this June, grabbing seven medals from the inaugural Games.

Thanks to First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, who heads the National Gymnastics Federation since 2002, gymnastics in Azerbaijan has entered a new stage in its development.

Organizational skills of the First Lady and her credibility played a crucial role in the decision in holding the World Cup in rhythmic gymnastics in 2003 and 2004, as well as the World Cup in 2005 in Azerbaijan.

Designed to host all gymnastics disciplines, the iconic 9,000-seat National Gymnastics Arena opened in 2014, is now able to host gymnasts' training for international tournaments. The arena will host the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in 2019.