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Of course, Azerbaijan has perfectly coped with organizing and holding such a great sporting event as the First European Games, Jacob Wischnia, President of the EU Technical Committee for Men's Artistic Gymnastics (Israel) told Trend March 5.

“Azerbaijan has successfully coped with the organization of the Open Joint Azerbaijan Championships in Gymnastics Disciplines despite it is very hard to organize such a big event with six disciplines at one time,” he said. “The Open Joint Azerbaijan Championships in Gymnastics Disciplines is the test championship on the eve of the First European Games.”

“I think in general, the championship has been organized very well,” he said. “Of course, there are some minor points to correct for the games. That is why, we are here. I am sure than all the points we have found out will be corrected in three months remaining before the games.”

“Everyone really dreams to have such an arena as in Baku in his own country,” he said. “I am happy that Azerbaijan has managed to build such an arena.”

“I am sure that this will lead the gymnasts to the excellent results in the future because such facilities give big motivation to go further,” he said.

Wischnia said that the Azerbaijani gymnasts have recently succeeded not only in rhythmic gymnastics but also in artistic gymnastics.

“I saw yesterday, you have three-four very very good gymnasts in my sport - men artistic gymnastics,” he said. “I am sure that there will be good Azerbaijani gymnasts in the finals in the upcoming European Games and European Championship in Montaner, France in April. As I saw yesterday two gymnasts are really on the high level. They can reach finals and get medals.”

“If you have good gymnasts it means you have good coaches,” he said.

The Open Joint Azerbaijan Championships in Gymnastics Disciplines is being held in Baku on March 4-6. This is the test championship on the eve of the First European Games.

Coming from 22 countries, 133 gymnasts will compete for medals in both the all-around and individual competitions.

Such well-known gymnasts, as two-time absolute world champion Yana Kudryavtseva (Russia, rhythmic gymnastics), Olympic silver medalist Filip Ude (Croatia), European champion Alexander Shatilov (Israel, both – sports gymnastics) and other athletes have arrived in the capital of Azerbaijan - Baku.

Azerbaijani gymnasts Oleg Stepko and Kristina Pravdina won gold medals in the all-around competition at the Open Joint Azerbaijan Championships in Gymnastics in Baku following the first day of the competition.

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