...

Azerbaijan’s Gymnastics Federation to take action against biased refereeing

Baku 2015 : EUROGAMES Materials 17 June 2015 14:37 (UTC +04:00)
The Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation considers measures to be taken against the judges who underestimated performance of Azerbaijani gymnasts
Azerbaijan’s Gymnastics Federation to take action against biased refereeing

Baku, Azerbaijan, June 17

Trend:

The Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation considers measures to be taken against the judges who underestimated the performance of Azerbaijani gymnasts in the group exercises with five ribbons as part of the First European Games in Baku on June 17, said Vice President of the Federation Altay Hasanov, Azernews newspaper reported.

Reminding that Sabina Abbasova, Aynur Mustafayeva, Alexandra Platonova, Siana Vassileva and Diana Doman received only 16.7 points from the judges, ranking eighth, and that deprived them of competing for medals in the finals on June 21.

Altay Hasanov noted that biased judging has been observed in the rhythmic gymnastics for years.

"We fight this by any legal means: lodge protests, advocate in the press, write letters to the management of the European Federation. Unfortunately, nothing serious happens, as subjective judging continues."

Hasanov said it seems like some forces control these processes, there is no progress in artistic gymnastics, and there are reasons for that.

Hasanov said such countries as Azerbaijan, which seek to do everything possible to create conditions for the development and promotion of this sport, are permanently written off at major international tournaments.

"Today, the European Games are underway for the first time in Azerbaijan, organization is great, conditions are excellent, teams are very respectable and many countries have arrived," Hasanov said.

He added with regret that however, what is going on in rhythmic gymnastics shouldn't be happening during such sports festival.

"We are seeing that, it can be observed with a naked eye," Hasanov said. "Countries which perform not so well, are given better marks than Azerbaijan, the team of which made no mistakes in the first exercise with five ribbons, and performed at the high level."

Hasanov pointed out that the management of the federation discusses the measures that will be undertaken.

"We were hoping for the goodwill of judges, that they will judge objectively. Unfortunately, this is not happening, so now we will be thinking about how to protest these actions of judges," Hasanov said. "We will have talks with an international legal firm for assistance in this matter."

"There is no room for emotions in this issue, emotions are for the fans who also understand what is going on, and unfortunately, not the first time," Hasanov said. "It feels like all this is deliberately being done specifically to our team, while independent experts say it is wrong towards Azerbaijan."

Hasanov noted that there is plenty of evidence.

"There are videos on YouTube, there are many other facts, so we want to do it within the law - to show that these people are unworthy to judge the competition of this scale. They must be punished," Hasanov stressed.

Azerbaijani national team is successful at the first European Games Baku 2015, placing the second in the overall ranking with 19 medals, eight of which are gold.

So far, the country possesses nine medals in Wrestling, six medals in Karate, and by one medals in Canoe Sprint, Gymnastics Artistic, Taekwondo, and Triathlon.

The Azerbaijani team in artistic gymnastics, including Oleg Stepko, Eldar Safarov and Petro Pakhnyuk, scored 174.195 points in the first day of the competition.

Baku 2015 European Games is an innovative competition that gathered over 6,000 athletes from 50 countries to compete in 20 sports. Twelve sports will provide licenses for Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Baku.

Tags:
Latest

Latest