Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Azerbaijan's duo Taras Matviychuk and Alexey Kupin won bronze at the Canoe Sprint European Championships, held in Mantes en Yvelines, France, on June 26-29.

Athletes like Alexei Solovyev, Amil Huseynli, Mikita Sablin, Aleksandr Pichugin, Mirnazim Javadov, Tamerlan Mustafayev, Anatoliy Melnik, Alexey Kupin, and Taras Matviychuk represented Azerbaijan.

The Matviychuk-Kupin duo reached the final in 3 minutes 48.220 seconds and the main final in 3 minutes 36.432 seconds, becoming the third.

Russian duo Alexey Korovashkov-Ilya Pervukhin came out first in the competition, while Ukrainian duo Yuri Vandyuk-Andrey Ribachok won the silver medal.

Azerbaijan's Melnik became the fifth, overcoming 500 meters in 1 minute 55.156 seconds. At the 500-meter race, the Matviychuk-Kupin duo took fifth place, covering the distance in 1 minute 42.908 seconds.

Other Azerbaijani athletes did not manage to reach the final. Thus, the Solovey-Huseynli duo covered 500 meters in 1 minute 39.236 seconds and became 14th, while Mirnazim Javadov came out the 11th, covering 200 meters in 36.572 seconds.

"The European Championship was very difficult for me," Javadov said. "I lost a lot of time and missed trainings because of problems with back this year. If not for that, the result would have been better."

Earlier, another Azerbaijani duo, Alexander Alexandrov and Boris Yotov, won silver medal in the 2,000-meter M2X race of the World Rowing Cup II in Aiguebelette, France. The duet that won silver at the European Championship on June 1 struggled with 21 rowers in France on June 19-22.

Rowing developed quickly in Azerbaijan with the establishment of the National Rowing Federation (AMAF) in December 2006.

Being a member of the International Rowing Federation (FISA) and the International Canoe Federation (ICF), the AMAF participates in various international competitions and European and world championships.