Azernews.Az

By Gulgiz Dadashova

Azerbaijan's adult gymnastics team won the silver medal of the 7th FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics BelSwissBank World Cup held in the Belarusian capital Minsk on May 17-19.

The competition brought together nearly 200 individual gymnasts and ten Rhythmic Groups representing a total of 29 countries from four continents.

Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation said that in the final exercise, the Azerbaijani team consisting of Sabina Abbasova, Irada Ahadzade, Mansura Bagiyeva, Sabina Garatova, Siyana Vasilyeva and Alia Pashayeva with five pairs of clubs took the second place, leaving behind the Olympic champions from Russia.

In the all-around at the final qualifying competition, Azerbaijan ranked fourth, losing just 0.1 points to three-time world champions from Italy, national team coach Mariana Vasileva said.

"In the individual event in the exercise with balls and ribbons, the girls performed well, but the final performance went wrong from the start and as a result the girls ranked sixth. In any case, I'm happy with their performance, as well as the performance of gymnast Marina Durunda, who performed in all the four finals of the World Cup," Vasileva said.

Durunda showed the best result in the final with a hoop where she took the fourth place. The 16-year-old athlete was the fifth in the exercise with the tape, the sixth with clubs and the all-around, and the seventh with the ball.

Another Azerbaijani gymnast, Lala Yusifova, only made ​​it to the finals with the ball and closed the top eight.

Russian gumnasts Yana Kudryavtseva and Darya Svatkovskaya, as well as Melitina Stanyuta of Belarus, celebrated the victory in Minsk.

The World Cup in Minsk was a dress rehearsal for this year's European and Asian championships that will be held in Vienna from May 31 to June 2 and in Tashkent June 5-8, respectively.

Azerbaijan will be represented by Lala Yusifova, Marina Durunda and the junior group consisting of Nilufyar Niftaliyeva, Gulsum Shafizade, Sabina Hummatova, Alexandra Platonova, Emilia Bagiyeva and substitute Aynur Mustafayeva at the event in Austria.

The 2013 FIG World Cup circuit in Rhythmic Gymnastics includes one category A event (Sofia) and seven category B events. Apart from Tartu, Bucharest and Corbeil-Essonnes (Individuals only), all events include both Individual and Group competitions, with All-around competitions serving as qualifications for the finals by apparatus.

The 2013 FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup Series, opened in Tartu on February 8-10, will conclude with the final event in St. Petersburg, Russia on August 17-18.