Azernews.Az

“Our emotions are running high. But we are trying to stay calm, because the swimming competitions will continue for four more days.”

According to Azernews, these words were said by Azerbaijani swimmer Fatima Alkaramova, who won a bronze medal in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay at the 6th Islamic Solidarity Games held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. She told journalists that they will strive to bring more medals to Azerbaijan:
“We did our best in the relay. I believe we will show even better results in the other relays, and we will win medals individually as well.”

Fatima Alkaramova stressed that they had gone through a very difficult path while preparing for the Islamic Games:
“We had intense training sessions. As you know, new coaches have joined the national team. Rashad Abdurrahmanov also helped us a lot. During the preparation period, we had already identified in which distances we could win medals.”

Another member of the national team, Mehri Abdurrahmanli, said that finishing third was very important for the team:
“We worked very hard for this result. I want to thank everyone who contributed to our success. We still have several more events ahead. I believe our team will deliver an excellent performance and increase our medal tally, because we have prepared very seriously for this.”

It should be noted that Azerbaijan is represented at the 6th Islamic Solidarity Games by 179 athletes in 20 sports. Overall, athletes from 57 countries are competing for medals in 23 disciplines.

The closing ceremony of the Games will be held on 21 November.