Islamic Games 2017: Azerbaijan finishes on top of medals table

The fourth Islamic Solidarity Games ended in Baku on May 22 with Azerbaijan topping the medals table after a relentless 11day long battle with neighboring Turkey. Curiously enough, the national team came up empty handed in terms of gold medals on the final day of action, the only time that had happened during the whole Games.

Azerbaijan joined the Games with 325 athletes, while the biggest delegation was sent by Turkey – 345 athletes. Iran ranked third for the number of athletes participating in the Games, having 300 athletes within the national team.

Turkey opened well with men's and women's doubles gold in the tennis competition, but after that it was one-way traffic.

Four golds went to the hosts on the final day of the wrestling -- with the women in action, according to Baku2017 press service.

The music of the "March of Azerbaijan" anthem resonated four times in the Heydar-Aliyev Arena as Elis Manolova (69kg), Mariya Stadnik (48kg), Leyla Gurbanova (53 kg), Tetiana Omelchenko (60kg) all triumphed.

Throughout the five-days of wrestling, Azerbaijan claimed a total of 23 wrestling medals, twelve of them gold.

Then there was double gold for the home teams in the 3x3 basketball finals.

Inspired by a number of foreignborn stars, the host nation saw off Qatar 13-9 in the men's final, having already brushed aside Mali 13-7 in the women's showpiece.

Gold medals also went Azerbaijan's way in the diving, zurkhaneh and finally to cap it all there was a famous win in the final of the football to close out the evening. This became the significant event in the Azerbaijani sport history, since the gold became the country’s first ever medal in football.

Mahir Madatov's first-half brace inspired Azerbaijan's 2-1 victory over Oman before a capacity crowd at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium.

By the time the dust had settled on Sunday's action, Azerbaijan had broken clear of its neighbor Turkey with 75 golds to 68.

Iran had a strong finish to the Games, lifting eight of the last 11 golds, six of those coming in wushu . Thus, the country finished third winning 39 gold, 26 silver and 33 bronze medals.

The biggest stars to emerge from the fourth edition of the multisport event in Azerbaijan became Marina Durunda (AZE) in Rhythmic gymnastics, Ruslan Lunev (AZE) – shooting, Viktoria Zeynep Gunes (TUR) – in swimming, and Ramil Guliyev (TUR) – Athletics.

Azerbaijan's Marina Durunda was always likely to win multiple titles for the hosts in Baku and she did not disappoint with a golden treble. The 19-year-old combined with Zhala Piriyeva to claim victory in the team competition by holding off an impressive Uzbekistan on the first official day of the Games.

The Ukrainian-born gymnast, who was taking part in her first major tournament since the 2016 Rio Olympics after a long injury absence, added two individual apparatus gold medals in the hoop and ribbon finals, as well as silver in the clubs and ball bronze.

Azerbaijan drew down the curtain on the shooting competition with ten medals, six of them gold, and it was all thanks to Ruslan Lunev.

The Baku marksman alone claimed five titles at the 2017 Solidarity Games, striking gold in the 25-metre centre fire pistol, the 25metre rapid fire pistol, the 25-metre standard pistol, the 10-metre air pistol as well as the mixed 10-metre air 50 pistol.

There were no shortage of standout performers in the swimming pool at Baku 2017, and an honorable mention must go to Turkey's Ekaterina, who won five gold medals including the women's 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke.

Algeria's Souad Nefissa Cherouati - the only non-Turkish woman to win gold - triumphed in the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle, while Maksym Shemberev powered to four men's golds for hosts Azerbaijan.

But the undisputed star of the Baku Aquatics Centre was Turkey's 18-year-old sensation Viktoria Zeynep Gunes, who conquered four individual titles - the women's 100m and 200m breaststroke and 200m and 400m medley - as well as taking gold in the 4x100m medley relay and silver in the 50m breaststroke.

"Everything is good," said Gunes, who like Durunda was born in Ukraine. "There were no heats for me, so I was only swimming in the afternoon, which meant that I could be more relaxed."

With all the focus on Qatar's Asian record holder Femi Ogunode ahead of the men's sprint races, Ramil Guliev had slipped under the radar.

But the Azeri-born Turkish athlete proved a cut above his sprint rivals as he surged to 100 and 200-metre golds in impressive fashion.

Guliev showed plenty of promise on his way to 100-metre silver at the 2016 European championships, but he sealed the biggest wins of his career in Baku.

The 26-year-old powered to 100-metre glory ahead of Bahrain's Andrew Fisher in a personal best time of 10.06s on the opening day of athletics at the Olympic Stadium on Tuesday, with the red-hot favourite Ogunode down in seventh.

And it didn't stop there for Guliev as he repeated the trick in the 200-metre final two days later.

Overall 40 countries out of the participating 54 nations could take medals at the Islamic Solidarity Games. The Top 10 is as the following: Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco, Indonesia, Egypt and Kyrgyzstan.