By Trend

It is absolutely comfortable for all gymnasts to perform in Baku, Yulia Pilyak, spectator of the 37th Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships, who arrived from Petrozavodsk city (Russia), told Trend on September 19.

“It is the first time that I came to the World Championships. I was engaged in gymnastics for 11 years, now my daughters are involved in this sport,” she said. “We are watching the competitions with great interest. Of course, gymnasts are worried, this sometimes affects the performances. However, this is the nature of competitions; the strongest, also in terms of moral stability, will win.”

Pilyak noted that the organization of the World Championships in Baku is excellent.

“The National Gymnastics Arena in Baku is amazing, the hall is brightly decorated,” she said. “We were rendered a warm, friendly reception.”

The 37th Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships will last until Sept. 22.

The Championships is the qualification competition for the Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo in 2020. As such, the first 16 individual gymnasts (max. two gymnasts per country) in the all-around ranking will qualify for the Games.

As for the gymnasts within group exercises, Bulgaria, Russia and Italy have already qualified according to the results of the last World Championships. At this year’s Championships, the best five teams will qualify for the Tokyo-2020 Olympic Games according to the all-around scores.

More than 300 gymnasts from 61 countries are competing for nine sets of medals. “Fairy Tales will come to life" is the motto of the championships.

Nine gymnasts are representing Azerbaijan at the World Championship, which is being held at the National Gymnastics Arena. Zohra Agamirova, Veronika Hudis, Yelyzaveta Luzan and Maryam Safarova perform in individual competitions. Ayshan Bayramova, Diana Ahmadbayli, Aliya Pashayeva, Zeynab Hummatova and Darya Sorokina participate in group exercises as part of the Azerbaijani team.