Russian Olympic Committee awards its athletes

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

The Russian Olympic Committee awarded the first national winners of the inaugural European Games in the Athletes Village on June 15.

Among the awarded athletes were Greco-Roman wrestlers, who won five gold and one bronze medals, as well as bronze medalist in karate Ivanna Zaycveva.

They were awarded diplomas and souvenirs, which were handed out by Igor Levitin, the vice president of the ROC and Igor Kazikov, the head of Russian delegation at the Games.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Athletes Village, as part of his visit to Baku on June 13 to meet the Russian athletes and wish them success.

During the meeting, the athletes handed the president a commemorative medal of the first European Games and a team uniform.

“Russian President was very satisfied with the meeting in the Village, as well as your preparation process. I wanted to congratulate our Greco-Roman wrestlers with victory,” Levitin said at the awarding ceremony.

Russia at the Games is represented by 360 athletes in all sports, except for track and field athletics. The team includes 34 world champions and 7 Olympic champions.

Russia entered the fourth day of the European Games with nine medals, thus becoming second in the overall ranking, following Azerbaijan. The Russian team has six gold, one silver, and two bronze medals in its haul.

Baku 2015 is the first-ever European Games, an exciting and innovative multi-sport event for the continent that is underway in the capital from June 12 to 28.

More than 6,000 athletes from 50 European countries compete in 20 sporting events. Some 16 of the sports are Olympic and four are non-Olympic.