Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The first day of the FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics, gathering many elite gymnasts from around the world, kicked off in Baku on February 19.

The competitions which are being held at the National Gymnastics Arena will last till February 21.

The first day of the World Challenge Cup will see qualification competitions on men’s artistic gymnastics on pommel horse, rings and floor exercises. Women will compete on vault and uneven bars.

Azerbaijan will be represented by Oleg Stepko and Petro Pakhnyuk in men’s gymnastics events, Marina Nekrasova and Mariya Smirnova will perform in vault events, while Yulia Inshina and Marina Nekrasova in uneven bars.

The bronze medal winner of the World Championships on parallel bars, only Azerbaijani athlete who won five medals at the Baku 2015 First European Games, Oleg Stepko, as well as his team-mate Petro Pakhnyuk, who became a bronze medal winner in team competition together, are in the list of favourites.

In general, there are 146 participants within the delegations representing 19 countries at the event. As many as 45 male and 22 female gymnasts will compete for medals in Apparatus Finals of the World Challenge Cup.

Qualifications both among men and women on the first two days of the competitions will be followed by Apparatus Finals on the last day.

There is an opportunity for the spectators to be a part of various contests and enjoy entertaining flash mobs in the course of the event.

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

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