Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

On Day 13 of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Azerbaijan increased its medal haul by winning three more medals.

Female wrestler Natalya Sinishin won a bronze medal of the Rio Olympics in women's 58kg weight class on August 18.

Sinishin beat Venezuelan Betzabeth Angelica Arguello Villegas to won the country’s 10th medal.

Commenting on her bronze, Natalya said that she is very pleased and very happy. “Any medal of the Olympic Games is a great joy,” she added.

Natalya lost the chance to win gold in her first fight held against the three-time winner of Olympics, Japanese Yoshida Saori.

“The first fight is always very difficult. In addition, before the Olympics, I chased a lot of weight, and lost 9 kg. And when you fight against such an opponent, it can be very difficult. At the competition the first fight is very important, and then you can fight against stronger rivals. But, it turned out that I had the first fight with one of the most powerful opponents. But all have equal strength, I do not consider myself weak,” Sinishin said.

On the same day, boxer Kamran Shahsuvarly (75kg) also claimed bronze, thus earning the country’s 9th medal after losing to Cuban Arlen Lopez in semifinal.

Shahsuvarly defeated world champion, Kazakhstan’s Zhanibek Alimkhanuly before he faced Cuba’s Arlen Lopez in semifinals.

“I still cannot believe I could do it [defeat Zhanibek ],” said 23-year-old Kamran. “I was very nervous before the fight. I have too many thoughts and did not know how I'm going to box against him. But after the first round I realized that he attacks, and I had to just meet him with a series of punches. ”

In early hours of the same day, canoe sprinter Valentin Demyanenko with result of 39.493 seconds won the silver medal in men’s canoe single 200 m.

Six Azerbaijani sportsmen will take part on the Day 14 on Friday of the Olympic Games in Rio.

Azerbaijani taekwondo fighters Milad Beigi (Men's −80 kg) and Farida Azizova (Women's −67 kg),wrestlers Haji Aliyev (men’s freestyle, −57 kg) and Jabrayil Hasanov (men’s freestyle, −74 kg), gymnast Marina Durunda (Individual) will begin the participation in the Olympiad.

Boxer Lorenzo Sotomayor (-64 kg) will fight for advancing to the finals.

Fifty-six athletes are representing Azerbaijan at the 2016 Summer Olympics, underway in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Games, which kicked off on August 5, will end on August 21, and will be followed by the 15th Summer Paralympic Games on September 7-18.

The Azerbaijani squad is represented in Rio Olympics by 56 athletes who compete in 18 sports in both Summer Olympic Games and Summer Paralympic Games. 36 of them will participate in the Olympic Games for their first time.

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

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