By Trend

The Azerbaijani rhythmic gymnastics team, which successfully performed at the European Championships in Tel Aviv (Israel), returned homeland with medals, Trend reports.

At the Heydar Aliyev International Airport, athletes were met by representatives of the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation, colleagues, representatives of the sports community, as well as relatives and folks.

At the European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship in Tel Aviv, which took place on June 15-19, the Azerbaijani team won four bronze medals. Thus, the Azerbaijani grace, junior Kamilla Gafarova won the bronze medal in the clubs program. The Azerbaijani team won three "bronze" medals in group exercises - in the all-around, program with five hoops and exercise with three ribbons and two balls.

The Azerbaijani team included Gullu Agalarzade, Laman Alimuradova, Kamilla Aliyeva, Zeynab Hummatova, Elizaveta Luzan and Daria Sorokina.

Upon arrival at homeland, the athletes shared their impressions of participation in the competitions with the media representatives.

According to team members in group exercises, they are happy to return to their homeland with medals.

"As with every sports award, the medals we won at the European Championships require a lot of hard work and hard training. We express our deep gratitude to the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation, our coaches, everyone who works with us, and of course, our parents for their great support. This support gives us strength, so our awards are a common success. We will continue to try to adequately represent Azerbaijan," said team member, gymnast Zeynab Hummatova.

As Gullu Agalarzade, a member of the team in group exercises, noted, each competition is extremely exciting, because the athletes represent their native country.

"We are proud that we adequately represented Azerbaijan at the European Championship. We will work hard to continue to show good results and rise to the highest steps of the podium," she added.

Junior Kamilla Gafarova said that this is the first European Championship in her sports career.

"The championship brought me a great experience. I am very glad that I performed with dignity and brought a medal to my country. I confess that the rivals at the championship were strong, I can single out gymnasts from Italy and Bulgaria," Gafarova said, expressing her gratitude to everyone who supported the national team at the championship.

At the European Championship in the adult age category, Zohra Agamirova and Arzu Jalilova took part in the individual program. In the all-around final (the sum of four exercises - hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon) Agamirova took ninth place, and Jalilova was in tenth position. In the finals of the individual program in certain types, Zohra Agamirova took eighth place in the ball exercise, and sixth position in the clubs program, Arzu Jalilova took eighth place in the ribbon exercise.

Along with the fact that Kamilla Gafarova took third place in the clubs program, she also placed sixth in the hoop exercise. Junior Alina Mammadova took sixth place in the exercise with the ball, and Medina Demirova - seventh place with the ribbon.