European Youth Olympic Festival due in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, a venue of the major sporting events, will welcome the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) in 2019.

Acting President of the European Olympic Committees (EOC) Janez Kocijancic announced about this at a press conference in Baku on January 10.

Nearly 4,000 people are expected to take part in the Festival, he noted, adding that 50 European Olympic committees and 50 world Olympic committees are to join the event.

He said that the festival’s participants will be young athletes aged 16-18.

Azerbaijan always holds big events at a high level, Kocijancic stressed, further adding that Azerbaijan hosted Baku-2015 First European Games and the European Grand Prix Formula One at the high level.

“Azerbaijan has also attained high results in “Rio-2016” summer Olympic games and received 18 medals. This is the best result in the Olympic history of the country”, added Kojicancic.

The 31st Summer Olympic Games in Rio went into the history of the Azerbaijani sport as one of the brightest pages. Azerbaijan’s history-making athletes have secured the country’s biggest Olympic medal haul for the past 25 years of Azerbaijan’s independence.

The country has sent a team of 56 athletes to the Rio Games, where our heroes won 18 medals.

Reminding that the second European Games will be held in Minsk, Kocijancic said that Belarus will benefit from Azerbaijan’s experience, because the First European Games in Baku was held at the highest level.

The inaugural European Games in Baku was a mega event hosting 6,000 athletes from 50 nations. Athletes competed in 20 sports, of which 16 were Olympic disciplines.

Vice-President of the Azerbaijan National Olympic Committee, member of the Executive Committee of the EOC Chingiz Huseynzadeh said that a relevant agreement on holding the festival in Baku would be signed at the meeting of the EOC Executive Committee in Switzerland on January 26.