National gymnasts take home clutch of medals

Azerbaijani gymnasts continue delighting their fans with excellent achievements made at international tournaments. This time the national athletes returned with medals from Kazakhstan and Portugal.

The national gymnasts shined at the 2nd "ZHULDYZ-CUP" International Tournament held in Astana, Kazakhstan on June 23-25.

The country was represented by Yuliia Soloviova in senior program, as well as Darya Farshbafshahriyari, Darya Sorokina and Yelyzaveta Luzan in junior program.

Junior gymnast Darya Sorokina’s final exercise with clubs brought her gold medal, while she was awarded with the “silver” for her ball routine. Having performed with a rope in the final, Darya Farshbafshahriyari contented herself with the 3rd place.

Darya Farshbafshahriyari also took the 1st place in the all-around of the “Baby Cup” competitions organized at the same time with the tournament.

Yuliia Soloviova, making her debut on the international arena, stopped a step away from the medal in her final performance with a ball.

Following the Astana tournament, Azerbaijani acrobats successfully participated in Acrobatic Gymnastics events at "Irtyshskiye Zory-2016" International Tournament held in Kazakhstan’s Pavlodar city on June 25-27.

Having performed within the age group of 12-18-year old, the gymnasts in Mixed Pair consisting of Abdulla Al-Mashayki and Ruhidil Gurbanli showed the best result among their rivals and won the gold.

Competing within the age category of 13-19-year-old acrobats, another Mixed Pair including Aghasif Rahimov and Nurjan Jabbarli ranked the 2nd.

Seymur Jafarov and Murad Akparov, who performed among juniors, also claimed silver at the competition.

In parallel with the tournaments in Kazakhstan, national gymnasts competed in the Anadia World Challenge Cup held on June 23-26 in Anadia, Portugal.

On June 26, when Azerbaijan celebrated the Day of the Armed Forces, the country’s national anthem was sounded in Portuguese Anadia city.

Oleg Stepko, who is to represent Azerbaijan at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, won gold medal on his favorite apparatus – Parallel Bars. He received 15.800 points from the judges for this routine.

Reaching the finals on Floor and Rings, Oleg ranked 7th on both apparatus.

Another national representative Petro Pakhnyuk, who, together with Oleg reached the final on Parallel Bars, took the 5th place.