Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 18
By Jani Babayeva – Trend:
An auction was held in the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku as part of the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships, where the gymnastic ribbon of ambassador of the 37th Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships, multiple-time world champion in rhythmic gymnastics, silver medalist of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta Yana Batyrshina was sold, Trend reports Sept. 18.
The auction was of a charity nature.
Batyrshina noted that namely with that gymnastic ribbon that she won the 1997 European Championships and Grand Prix Final.
“This ribbon is unique,” she said. “Now almost all ribbons the girls perform with are given to paint in special companies. I painted my ribbon myself with markers. I remember that it took me about four hours. This ribbon is 22 years old, and it’s in very good condition, I cherished it. All the money received from the sale of the ribbon will go to charity. In addition to the ribbon, I prepared a gift to a person who will become the owner of today’s lot – it is a t-shirt featuring me with this ribbon. Ribbon is my favorite gymnastic apparatus. I’ll give it away with great love, and I’m sure that my ribbon will bring good luck to the new owner.”
The starting price of the lot was 100 euros. During the bidding process, the value of the lot has repeatedly increased. In the middle of the auction, Yana Batyrshina decided to take part in the auction, saying the price was 2,200 euros.
But, the head coach of the Azerbaijani team in rhythmic gymnastics Mariana Vasileva raised the bid to 2,500 euros, and became the owner of the lot.
“Today our team performs exercises with a ribbon, and when I was going to the auction, I thought that I should definitely buy this item,” said Vasileva. “We needed luck today. At first I thought that I would give this ribbon to some young gymnast, but changed my mind, seeing how hard it was for Yana to part with it. I would like to return the ribbon to Yana.”
Vasileva noted that the money will go to charity in any case.
