Vasileva: World Championships in Bulgaria very successful for Azerbaijani gymnasts
By Trend
The 36th Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships, which was recently held in Sofia, Bulgaria, can be considered as very successful for the national team of Azerbaijan, head coach of the national team Mariana Vasileva told Trend.
She noted that the results of gymnasts show that they achieve more from year to year.
"With each World Championship our results become better or remain the same. Last year, at the World Championships in Pesaro we could not reach the finals in the all-around individual competitions, as our gymnast Zohra Aghamirova was very young and inexperienced. That year, she was able to reach the finals with the top 24 gymnasts out of 160 athletes in general. Given her age - she is just 16 - this is a very good indicator. This year, Daria Sorokina and Veronika Gudis went to the World Championships for the first time. As a result, Azerbaijan ranked ninth among 36 countries in the team standings, which, I think, is an exceptionally good result. The main thing is that our athletes have a very promising future. We have a very young team, it may even be one of the youngest teams in the World Championships," Vasileva said.
The best result, in her opinion, was shown by the group team, which once again proved that it is one of the leading teams in rhythmic gymnastics.
"Of course, it was a little hard to perform after the European Championships, where the team took the bronze in the exercises with balls and ropes, as everyone expected a better result from us. But everything worked out, we were able to reach both finals, which is considered a great achievement. In addition, the team has gained the opportunity to participate in the licensing tournament for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, that is the next World Championships in Rhythmic Gymnastics, which will be held in Baku," Vasileva said.