Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 19
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
The arrival of the stars of world artistic gymnastics in Baku is very good for the development of this kind of sport, Rza Aliyev, a judge of international category, told Trend Feb. 19.
The arrival of star athletes, such as Kenzo Shirai, Oksana Chusovitina, Alexander Shatilov, is very good in general for the FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics in terms of development of the artistic gymnastics in Azerbaijan, he said.
Aliyev added that the Japanese athlete Kenzo Shirai's performing new difficult element was an important moment for the FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics, being held in Baku.
"Shirai is now the only athlete in the world who performs such a double somersault followed by three spins," Aliyev said. "This is a very difficult element, which is named after Shirai himself. This is the second tournament where he performed this element, and the first international one."
The FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics kicked off in Baku Feb. 19 and is to end Feb. 21. As many as 45 male and 22 female gymnasts will compete for medals in apparatus finals of the World Challenge Cup.
In general, athletes from 19 countries are to participate in the event.
Men's and women's qualifications on the first two days of the competitions will be followed by apparatus finals on the last day.
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