National cyclist comes fourth at Islamic Solidarity Games

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijani cyclists have joined the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games in Konya, Turkiye, Azernews reports.

Members of Azerbaijan's Elite/U23 national team competed in a group race at the Konya Velodrome.

Ayan Xankishiyeva took fourth (13 points) in Elite/U23 in women's cycle racing while Musa Mikayilzada ranked seventh in the men's cycle racing (8 points).

Rinata Sultanova (Kazakhstan) won a gold medal, Nur Asya Muhammad Zubir (Malaysia) took silver, and Sofia Karimova (Uzbekistan) grabbed a bronze medal in the 10km final race.

Around 4,200 athletes from 56 countries are competing in the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games.

A total of 281 athletes are representing Azerbaijan at the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games to run until August 18.

Some sportsmen have not arrived yet. A group of Azerbaijani athletes has recently left for the Turkish city of Konya. The cyclists, tennis players, and handball players left for Konya on August 5.

The official opening ceremony will take place on August 9.

In March, the Organizing Committee announced the final program which consists of 22 disciplines from 19 sports including 4 para-sports

At the same time, the organizers choose to remove 6 sports: water polo, diving, field hockey, tennis, wushu, and zurkhaneh. At their place, they choose to add archery, boccia, fencing, and kickboxing.

At the paralympic events, para powerlifting and blind judo were replaced by para table tennis and para archery. Along these events, archery included four extra events with the Traditional Turkish Archery discipline.

Notably, the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games took place in Baku in 2017. All 56 members of the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation participated in the Games.

Four disciplines from 21 sports were contested in the previous edition of the Islamic Solidarity Games.