Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 21
By Anvar Mammadov, Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
Azerbaijan’s capital Baku hosted the new Olympic cycle’s first World Cup in Trampoline Gymnastics and Tumbling on Feb. 18-19. Eighty-five gymnasts from six different disciplines represented 15 countries in the World Cup.
Baku once again turned an ordinary World Cup in gymnastics into a colorful holiday. It is difficult to identify whether it was a competition with show elements or a show with competition elements.
Unusual lighting of the hall in the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku allowed fans to better focus on the gymnasts’ performance on trampolines and tumble track and not get distracted. Many gymnasts and official guests from the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) said they like this design and it attracts more spectators.
In addition to the lighting, a splendid opening ceremony, which was attended by gymnasts of all disciplines, and a rich entertainment program were organized for the spectators.
It is worth noting that Azerbaijani gymnasts successfully performed at the World Cup.
Silver medals won by Ilya Grishunin in individual events, Svetlana Makshtareva and Veronica Zemlanaya in synchronized pairs' events and Mikhail Malkin in a tumbling event showed that three years and a large amount of effort, spent on the development of this type of gymnastics, were not in vain.
Below is the medal standings table of the World Cup in Trampoline Gymnastics and Tumbling:
Country |
Number of medals |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Russia |
6 |
4 |
2 |
- |
Belarus |
2 |
1 |
- |
1 |
Kazakhstan |
1 |
1 |
- |
- |
Azerbaijan |
3 |
- |
3 |
- |
Portugal |
3 |
- |
1 |
2 |
Great Britain |
1 |
- |
- |
1 |
South Africa |
1 |
- |
- |
1 |
Japan |
1 |
- |
- |
1 |
After the end of competitions, Farid Gaibov, secretary general of the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation (AGF), said that a goal to win medals was not set before the Azerbaijani athletes, as trampoline gymnastics and tumbling have recently started developing in Azerbaijan.
“Our goal was to popularize this sport, since particularly trampolining is an Olympic sport. We are very pleased with the results. If last year, when we held the World Cup in Trampoline Gymnastics for the first time, we didn't have any medals, this year we won three medals,” he said.
“This all shows that we did not stagnate and we did a great job. And these medals indicate the work done by the coaching staff, the Gymnastics Federation and the gymnasts.”
Baku will host the World Cup in Artistic Gymnastics on March 16-19 and Azerbaijani sports fans will surely enjoy the show again.