Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Successes of Azerbaijani wrestlers annoy some circles, claimed Vice-President of the National Olympic Committee Chingiz Huseynzade, speaking at the press conference on Tuesday.

Earlier, the media spread information that a few fighters from Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Kazakhstan have used doping at the Olympic Games Beijing 2008 and London 2012, whilst the names of the athletes were withheld.

Huseynzade noted that Azerbaijan has achieved great success in this sport in recent years.

“In Rio de Janeiro, Azerbaijani wrestlers won nine medals. Now they wonder how Azerbaijan was able to win so many medals,” he said.

The vice-president of the NOC stressed that the doping scandal continues.

“What will happen next is unknown. For some reason, the names of the countries that invented doping and anti-doping, are not included in the list. But the names of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other countries are included. Our athletes passed doping tests before and after the event and the test results were clean,” Huseynzade said.

Now someone has invented a new technology, when doping tests are carried out repeatedly, he said. “These problems exist, and I think that the debate would go a few years more. But sooner or later the issue will be resolved.”

The Land of Fire was proud of its courageous athletes. With its ancient Turkic roots, Azerbaijan’s success in the sport of wrestling is not coincidental.

Wrestling remains the most popular sport in the county and is overseen by the National Wrestling Federation, which was established in 1993.

The Rio Games opened a new page in wrestling for Azerbaijan. The country sent 14 athletes to Rio, who secured nine medals in Summer Olympics.

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

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