Baku, Azerbaijan, June 18
Trend:
The 32nd European Championship in Rhythmic Gymnastics kicked off in Israeli city of Holon on June 17.
Azerbaijani gymnasts successfully started their performances among 37 countries participating in the European Championship.
In the first half of the day, Azerbaijani athletes performing with rope and hoop in the program for junior gymnasts, Veronica Hudis and Ilaha Mammadova, passed to the decisive stage.
In the second half of the day, a group from the Azerbaijani team successfully performed the exercises with ribbon and passed to the final.
Unfortunately, during the performances with hoop and clubs an unlucky case happened.
The music played during the team’s performance was interrupted due to technical problems.
Immediately after the incident, head coach of Azerbaijan’s national rhythmic gymnastics team Mariana Vasileva protested. The Technical Committee accepted the protest, and noted that the Azerbaijani team will perform again.
While preparing to enter the podium, the Technical Committee said it is impossible for Azerbaijani gymnasts to perform again.
In an investigation into the incident, Trend viewed the rules posted on the official website of the International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG).
According to the rules’ paragraph 1.5.2, a gymnast/group may repeat an exercise only in the case of a “force major” fault from organizing country and approved by Superior Jury (example: electricity shut down, sound system error, etc.).
So, does this mean that the rules are meant to be broken?