Baku to welcome "flying" gymnasts this weekend

/By Azernews/

By Amina Nazarli

The FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics was a great success and a grandiose event that left behind not only some great memories of sporting achievement, but also wonderful legacy of support for young gymnasts.

Now, Baku, which can truly claim for the title of sports capital of the continent, will host another exciting gymnastics festival. This weekend, the impressive National Gymnastics Arena will see the FIG World Cup in Trampoline Gymnastics, welcoming 77 gymnasts from 17 countries.

Geography of 46 men and 31 women “flying” gymnasts, covers both hemispheres from the U.S. to Australia, as well as athletes from France, Russia, Belarus, Poland, the UK, Portugal, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.

The athletes of the green island continent for the first time stepped on Absheron Peninsula, with a purpose of acclimatization and systematic preparation for the World Cup. What cannot be said about the teams of Turkish speaking Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, who have long been under the impression of the conditions for the training camp at the Baku arena.

Australian athlete Ty Swadling says it would be great to win a medal at the FIG World Cup in Baku, adding that every tournament is very important for him before the selections for the Olympic Games.

Head coach of the Australian gymnastics squad Brett Austine also believes that such events are very important for the athletes’ ratings and for potential selection for the Olympics.

He said the gymnasts from Russia can be considered his team’s main rivals in the competition, adding that Japanese and Belarusian athletes are worth to be noted as well.

Trio of the Slavic teams, including Russia (14 persons), Belarus and Ukraine (12 persons each), as well as the U.S. (11) will have the delegations of comparatively large composition.

Vladimir Shulikin, head coach of the Azerbaijani national team in trampoline gymnastics said that Azerbaijani athletes will also compete for medals at the upcoming event.

"I estimate the readiness of Azerbaijani athletes by 70-80 percent. The main thing now is to reach the athletic peak in a month during the European Championship in Trampoline, Double Mini-Trampoline and Tumbling in Valladolid, Spain,” he told Trend.

Shulikin said that the FIG World Cup in Trampoline Gymnastics will be a rather impressive tournament.

"In my opinion, all the strongest athletes have arrived. The athletes from China and Canada could not come. All the rest strong European countries, Japan, Australia, U.S., Russia and Belarus are represented by leading athletes. Strong competition is expected, and we will compete.”

“Among male gymnasts, our team leader, Ilya Grishunin, can compete for medals. Grishunin and Oleg Piunov can show good results in synchronized exercises. But I reiterate that the athletic peak has not been achieved yet. It is necessary to wait for the result in the European Men's Artistic Gymnastics Championships,” he said.

Since the World Cup is an important event in the international gymnastics calendar, FIG will delegate its technical representative to Azerbaijan.

Technical delegation includes multiple European and World champion Dmitry Poliarush from Belarus, who was the first athlete to perform a double somersault backward with four twists.

President of the FIG Technical Committee in Trampoline Gymnastics Horst Kunze will also assess the course of the competitions.

His former colleague within the European Union of Gymnastics, and, present member of the UEG Executive Committee Erik Mogensen believes in successful organization of the World Cup.

“The results of the similar World “Challenge” Cup series in Artistic Gymnastics, where we witnessed the successful events, gives me ground to be confident of it. Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation (AGF) is young, energetic and creative and I think everything will be OK," he said.

AGF Secretary General Farid Gayibov said everything including the arena, athletes and services are ready for holding the competitions. "Again, I call the fans to fill the stands and support trampoline gymnasts. I am sure that they will show worthy results and the country’s another gymnastics festival will be remembered by all sports fans for a long time," he said.

In Azerbaijan, trampoline gymnastics appeared in the mid-2013. The first athlete to represent the country in the international arena was Ruslan Aghamirov, who performed at the World Cup in Denmark in 2013.

In 2014, the Azerbaijani trampoline gymnastics team made a breakthrough, when Oleg Piunov and Ilya Grishunin became prizewinners of the World Cup in Portugal performing in synchronized pairing.

This sport is still at the stage of development in Azerbaijan and each year is gaining new momentum.