Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.22
By Jani Babayeva - Trend:
«We always feel the support of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice-President, President of Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation Mehriban Aliyeva,” head coach of Azerbaijani rhythmic gymnastics team Mariana Vasileva told Trend Sept.22.
“Most importantly, I would like to congratulate the First Vice-President of Azerbaijan, the President of the Gymnastics Federation of the country, Mehriban Aliyeva, and express deep gratitude for the support that we felt with her presence and, of course, with the presence of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the opening of the World Championship. For us it is a great pride that they were with us. Even when they are not in the hall, we always feel their support. We are glad that we were also able to make them happy with our results. We will work even more,” head coach of the Azerbaijani team said.
As for the licenses won by Azerbaijani gymnasts for Tokyo 2020, Mariana Vasileva noted that this is a great success, and the goal was 100 percent fulfilled.
“We knew very well that we will not be able to win two licenses in the individual program, as all of our gymnasts are young, with two of them performing for the first time at the World Championships. We we counting of course, on Zohra Agamirova, as she is the most experienced one. Last year, she participated in the World Cup and got into the top twenty gymnasts. And now she is already the sixteenth in the Championship, and has won a license for the Olympic Games,” she said.
Vasileva said Zohra is very clever and hard worker.
“I think in the future she will have even greater success. As for the result of the team in group exercises, I am extremely happy. For us it was very important. It is difficult to perform in the homeland. It is difficult for our girls, as they want to perform better than they can and to make the fans glad. By the way, many thanks to the fans. I know that on today’s final day all tickets were sold,” said Vasileva.
The head coach added that she was very happy to hear from many people that there is a school of rhythmic gymnastics in Azerbaijan.
“I am glad to hear people saying that there is a school of rhythmic gymnastics in Azerbaijan. This shows that we are on the right path and are creating our own school,” she said.
The 37th Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships took place at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku on September 16-22. The World Championships was attended by over 300 gymnasts from 61 countries.