Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan’s taekwondo fighters are celebrating a new success, as the national team set a record in the country’s sport history by winning taekwondo licenses for the Summer Olympic Games.

For the first time, Azerbaijan will compete with four taekwondo fighters in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

26-year-old World and European champion Radik Isayev at 80kg won the ticket for the Summer Olympics thanks to the scored points.

Meanwhile, the national team, including Patimat Abakarova at 49kg, Farida Azizova at 67kg, Milad Beigi Harchegani at 80kg claimed the licenses beating all their rivals at the European Olympic taekwondo qualifying tournament for Rio 2016 held in Istanbul.

For the first time two Azerbaijani female taekwondo fighters will represent the country at the Olympic Games.

So far, the country has been competed in the taekwondo competition at the Olympics only once four years ago, when Farida Azizova participated in the London Summer Olympics, reaching 1/8 final. This year’s Olympics will present another chance for the 20-year-old athlete to win an Olympic medal.

Upon their arrival in Baku, the fighters shared their joy with the media, voicing that they are very proud of getting license for the Rio 2016.

Emphasizing that they have dedicated their victory to the Azerbaijani people, the fighters said the preparation for the Olympic Games is going very serious and they seek to please the country with Olympics medals.

These three athletes also brilliantly performed at the 1st Baku Europeans Games held last summer, winning valuable medals for their country.

Taekwondo is one of the most popular sports in Azerbaijan. The National Taekwondo Federation has trained many prominent athletes since its founding in 1992. Many of those athletes now enjoy international recognition.

The Federation’s training facility houses new, state-of-the-art training equipment and has a proud history of bringing up more than 500 black belt recipients and athletes.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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