By Trend

The 37th Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Baku is an important competition because it is an opportunity for winners to take part in the 2020 Olympic Games, head coach of the Azerbaijani rhythmic gymnastics team Mariana Vasileva told reporters in Baku, Trend reports on September 11.

“More than 300 gymnasts from 61 countries will take part in the Championships,” she said. “Azerbaijan will be represented by nine athletes. Our leaders Zohra Aghamirova and Veronika Hudis, as well as young athletes Yelizaveta Luzan and Maryam Safarova will participate in the individual program. Diana Ahmadbayli, Ayshen Bayramova, Aliya Pashayeva, Zeynab Hummatova and Daria Sorokina will perform in the group exercises.”

“All gymnasts worry as the competition is an opportunity for the winners to take part in the 2020 Olympic Games,” Vasileva said. “In fact, I am glad that they worry. This shows that they are aware of the responsibility and significance of the competition. As for the result, I can not talk about it in advance. The most important thing for us is to perform well."

She stressed that the program that the Azerbaijani athletes will perform was prepared during a whole season.

“We have been training to perform this program for a whole season,” Vasileva said. “Veronika Hudis will perform a new exercise - a composition with a ribbon to Muslim Magomayev’s song 'Oh the sea, sea'. By the way, after the specialists saw her first performance in Minsk, everybody appreciated the program.”

“During the Championships, Zohra Aghamirova and Veronika Hudis will perform the exercises with four apparatuses,” she said. “Yelizaveta Luzan will perform an exercise with clubs. Maryam Safarova, who joined us instead of injured Fatima Akbarova, will perform an exercise with a ribbon."

While speaking about the opening ceremony of the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships, Vasileva stressed that 200 gymnasts will take part in it.

“The show is called 'Tale of the East',” she said. “I invite all spectators to watch the opening ceremony and the competitions themselves. We are waiting for everyone in the National Gymnastics Arena on September 16-22!”

After 14 years, Baku will again host the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships. During seven days, the gymnasts will perform in the National Gymnastics Arena, both in the individual program and as part of teams in group exercises, who will compete in the competitions with individual apparatus and in the all-around competitions. The names of the best athletes in the team event will also be announced.

?The World Championships are the qualifying competitions for the Olympic Games - 2020. Not only the winners, but also the names of new candidates for the Olympics will be named following these Championships.

The gymnasts who will rank the first 16 places in the individual all-around program will get an opportunity to participate in the 2020 Olympic Games (maximum two gymnasts from the country). As for the teams involved in group exercises, following the results of the last year’s World Cup, the teams of Bulgaria, Russia and Italy have already obtained an opportunity to participate in the 2020 Olympic Games. Five more teams involved in the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Baku will also have an opportunity to participate in the 2020 Olympic Games.