Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 4
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
Azerbaijan's gymnastics team has great chances to take top places in competitions within the First European Games to be held in Baku in June 2015, Azerbaijani gymnast Kristina Pravdina told Trend March 4.
Pravdina won a gold medal in the all-around competition among women within the Open Joint Azerbaijan Championships in Gymnastics that kicked off in Baku on March 4.
"During the First European Games in Baku, competitions will be held for winning a large number of medals," she said. "We will surely be able to enter at least top 8."
"But time will tell, I don't want to guess," Pravdina added.
Moreover, she said that today's competitions made a good impression on her.
The gymnast said from the very beginning, she was expecting to be among the winners, however, the first place became a pleasant surprise for her.
At the same time, Pravdina said that despite the first place, she is not quite satisfied with her performance.
Answering to a question about whom she sees as her main rivals at the championship held, Pravdina said she doesn't particularly watch her competitors.
"After competitions, I try to watch videos and look at performances. I had a specific task: to perform, to advance, to try and see how I will show myself at this level. Prior to this, I had a big hiatus, and I have just come back to the big stage and I want to do it properly," she said.
Pravdina said the next event, where Azerbaijani gymnasts want to fight for the victory, is the World Cup in Germany, which will be held in late March.
Speaking about the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku, the athlete said it is very comfortable to perform there.
"There is an excellent stage in the National Gymnastics Arena," she added.
Open Joint Azerbaijan Championships in Gymnastics Disciplines kicked off in Baku on March 4. This is the test championship on the eve of the First European Games.
Coming from 22 countries, 133 gymnasts will compete for medals in both the all-around and individual competitions.
Such well-known gymnasts, as two-time absolute world champion Yana Kudryavtseva (Russia, rhythmic gymnastics), Olympic silver medalist Filip Ude (Croatia), European champion Alexander Shatilov (Israel, both - sports gymnastics) and other athletes have arrived in the capital of Azerbaijan - Baku.
The European Games themselves will be hosted in Baku on June 12-28, 2015. There will be a total of 20 sports at Baku 2015: 16 Olympic sports and four non-Olympic sports. More than 6,000 athletes from across Europe will be representing their nations over 17 days of competition. Baku was awarded the games by the European Olympic Committees (EOC) in December 2012.
Edited by CN
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