Baku, Azerbaijan, June 4
Trend:
The first European Games in Baku will become one of the main stages of the Russian national rhythmic gymnastics team's preparation for the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Amina Zaripova, personal trainer of the Russian five times world champion Margarita Mamun said, Tass reported.
Zaripova made this statement at a press conference in the Russian Olympic Committee.
"Of course, the first European Games are a more responsible competition than the Grand Prix and other tournaments," she said.
"The world gymnastics level greatly increased," she said. "So, the representatives of all countries will be our rivals in Baku. Ukraine, Belarus are among the main rivals. The competitions will be very interesting."
She said that the European Games in Baku will be one of the important stages of preparation for the Games-2016.
Yana Kudryavtseva and Margarita Mamun will represent Russia in Baku's individual all-around competition. Vera Biryukova, Daria Kleshcheva, Anastasia Maksimova, Sofia Skomorokh, Anastasia Tatareva, Maria Tolkacheva will perform in the group exercises.
Baku 2015 is the first-ever European Games, an exciting and innovative multi-sport event for the continent that will take place 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