Baku Artistic Gymnastics Championship draws to close

By Amina Nazarli - AzerNews 

The 22nd Baku Championship in Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics was held with great enthusiasm at Baku’s National Gymnastics Arena on October 2-3.

Athletes from Baku Gymnastics School, Ocaq Republican Olympic Lyceum, “Neftchi” club as well as competitors from the Sumgayit and Balakan regions participated in the competition.

The winners of the impressive competition were awarded medals and diplomas.

During the course of the events, spectators were drawn to the dazzling routines by the athletes, who demonstrated their physical abilities on the balance beam, the horizontal bars, and in various floor routines.

During the competition, audiences were excited to see performances by the many idols in artistic gymnastics: the Champion of the 1st European Games, Oleg Stepko; the bronze medalist in team competition, Petro Pakhnyuk; as well as members of the Azerbaijani Women’s Artistic Gymnastics National Team, Marina Nekrasova, Yuliya Inshina, and Mariya Smirnova.

Five-time European Games medalist Stepko celebrated a victory at the competition. “I am happy with my results, but I have time to modify some of the techniques [for the World Championships in Glasgow]. I cannot say that in some disciplines I succeeded or conversely. For example, on bars I received seven points, and this result is higher than that was in the European Games,” he said.

Marina Nekrasova won the championship in the women’s all-around, while the silver went to Yulia Inshina, and bronze to Maria Smirnova.

This was the final tournament for senior gymnasts before the year’s major gymnastics event -- the World Championships in Glasgow, scheduled for October 23 until November 1.

Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani “Ocaq” team participated at the World Club Championships in the Japanese capital of Tokyo from October 2-4. The national representative among juniors, Jala Piriyeva, won the bronze medal at the competition.