'Baku will be able to adequately organise Olympics 2020'

Azerbaijan is sure that Baku will be able to adequately organise the Summer Olympic Games in 2020, irrespective of how well Azerbaijani sportsmen will perform, Azerbaijani Youth and Sports Minister Azad Rahimov said in an interview with Trend on the eve of the Day of Physical Culture and Sports, celebrated in Azerbaijan on March 5.

The presidents of various sports federations do not get along with each other or the local Olympic Committee in some countries. However, the success of Azerbaijani sport is because all the sports organisations work as a team, the Minister said.

He recalled that at present, the Olympic complexes operate in 33 Azerbaijani regions. The last one opened in Sumgait. At present, about 10 Olympic sports complexes are under construction, of which three to four will be commissioned this year. These complexes have been built and put into operation in all regions, where the population reaches 80,000 - 100,000.

"Of course, we think about the importance of the construction of Olympic complexes in the regions with less population," he said. "But we do not think that there must be Olympic complexes. Sports halls and areas may be built there.

"Regarding the use of Olympic complexes established under the Ministry, they have free sections on Olympic kinds of sports. Some of them have five to six sections which are destined for those kinds of sports that are popular in these regions."

The International Olympic Committee approved the candidacy of Baku as a contender to host the Olympics in 2020. To this end, Azerbaijan established an organising committee.

Along with Baku, Madrid, Rome, Tokyo, Istanbul and the capital of Qatar - Doha, all are making a claim to host the Summer Olympic Games in 2020.

The International Olympic Committee will name the city where the Olympics will be held after a two-stage selection in Argentine's capital Buenos Aires on September 7, 2013.

The Azerbaijani National Olympic Committee had put forward the candidacy of Baku to host the Summer Olympics in 2016, but the International Olympic Committee gave this right to Rio de Janeiro.


/Trend/