Baku, Azerbaijan, July 24
By Jani Babayeva – Trend:
Russian female gymnasts Viktoria Listunova and Irina Komnova hope to win the gold medal in the team standings during gymnastics competitions as part of the XV Summer European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF Baku 2019), Trend reports on July 24.
"I came for the competitions in Baku for the first time,” Listunova said. “The National Gymnastics Arena is both magnificent and comfortable. All the conditions were created for us. There was enough time for preparation and adaptation."
The Russian gymnast noted that she plans to take a walk around the city. "We want to visit the Old City, as we know that the “Diamond Arm” movie was shot there," Listunova added.
While commenting on her participation in the competitions, Komnova stressed that she was worried and failed to perform the balance beam and uneven bars exercises well.
“I am trying to manage excitement,” Komnova explained. “I performed this program well during the training. The EYOF Baku 2019 competitions are an important stage because we have not participated in such competitions yet. The conditions in Baku’s National Gymnastics Arena are excellent."
Speaking about the recent competitions in which the Russian men's national team won a silver medal, the gymnasts expressed hope that the women's team will win a gold medal in the team standings today.
The competitions in artistic gymnastics kicked off in the National Gymnastics Arena as part of the XV Summer European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF Baku 2019) on July 23.
The competitions in artistic gymnastics are being held on July 23-27.
In this kind of sports Azerbaijan is being represented by four gymnasts, namely, Samad Mammadli, Agakazim Rustamov, Mansum Safarov and Milana Minakovskaya.
The XV Summer European Youth Olympic Festival, which is held July 21-27, is taking place at 12 sports facilities.
The festival is attended by 3,900 athletes from 48 European countries. Fifty-two percent of the participants are males, and 48 percent are females. Athletes are competing for 135 sets of medals. A total of 930 medals are prepared for the winners, including 300 gold, 300 silver and 330 bronze medals.
Some 122 athletes represent Azerbaijan at the festival.
Athletes are competing in ten kinds of sports: gymnastics, athletics, basketball, cycling, handball, judo, swimming, tennis, volleyball and wrestling.
