Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijani gymnastics reaches new heights thanks to the creditable performance of national athletes.

This time, national gymnast Oleg Stepko raised the Azerbaijani flag over Qatar’s capital during the ninth Doha World Challenge Cup held on March 24-26.

In the second FIG Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics, welcoming about 100 gymnasts from 33 countries, Stepko grabbed the gold medal in the parallel bars, scoring 15.825 points. In the Pommel horse Oleg won bronze medal.

Another Azerbaijani gymnast Petro Pakhnyuk took the seventh place showing the result of 14.450 points at the Doha World Challenge Cup.

This February, Stepko grabbed three medals at the first FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics that took place in Baku. In parallel bars he took gold, he earned silver in vault and in rings the gymnast won bronze.

Oleg is one of the strongest athletes in the national team, who continues to delight his fans and the country with new successes.

In the World Cup Championships in Doha in 2014, he took first place on the parallel bars. Also in 2014, at the 1st Israeli Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Open Cup, Stepko won three gold medals in all-around, parallel bars, and rings.

He was also irresistible at the first European Games held in Baku last summer, winning five medals. Moreover, Stepko is one of the two license owners in gymnastics to compete at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.

Twenty-two-year-old Stepko is a Ukrainian athlete, who changed his sports nationality to Azerbaijani and, since 2014, has represented the country at many national and international competitions.

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

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