National gymnasts win two gold medals in Slovenia

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijani gymnasts have won two gold medals at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup held in Slovenia from May 30 to June 2.

More than 100 male and female artistic gymnasts competed for the title of the best gymnast there.

National gymnast Marina Nekrasova grabbed the gold medal in the vault exercises (14.475 points).

The second gold medal was grabbed by Nikita Simonov in the exercises with rings (14.600 points).

It should be noted that Marina Nekrasova has previously represented Azerbaijan at the 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and the 2015 European Games.

Nikita Simonov performed at many international gymnastics competitions including FIG World Cup 2019 in Baku, 48th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Doha, 2018 FIG World Challenge Cup in Paris, etc.

The Artistic Gymnastics World Cup is a competition series for artistic gymnastics sanctioned by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). It is one of the few tournaments in artistic gymnastics officially organized by FIG, along with the World Championships and the gymnastics competitions at the Olympic Games and the Youth Olympics.

Beginning in the 2017-2020 quadrennium, the All-Around and Individual Apparatus World Cup series will be used to qualify a maximum of seven spots to the Olympic Games.

Gymnastics is the sport that is paid an increased attention in Azerbaijan. Founded in 1956, Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation (AGF) has experienced revival since 2002, and the renewed federation lifted this popular sport to a new level. Currently, AGF comprises seven gymnastics disciplines recognized by the International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG).

The National Gymnastics Arena, which specializes in all six competitive gymnastics disciplines and which has hosted all large-scale competitions held in Baku from the day of its opening in 2014, is in the spotlight of not only the gymnasts, willingly joining the training camp, but also of all the sports fans from different countries of the world with its uniqueness.

The high level organization of the gymnastics events did not remain unnoticed. International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) included the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation (AGF) into the list of the meritorious federations. Thus, the AGF has managed to be in the spotlight with its exemplary activity.

The AGF succeeded to be included into the FIG ranking of the best 10 federations in 2014, 2015 and 2016 and ranked first in 2017.

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Laman Ismayilova  is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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