Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 18
By Jani Babayeva - Trend:
Azerbaijani gymnast Maryam Safarova shared her impressions after performing at the 37th World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships.
“This is my first World Cup. I liked to perform at the competition,” Safarova told Trend after performing at the qualifying competitions.
"I had only a month to prepare for the Championship. I unexpectedly joined the participants of the competition, as I replaced another Azerbaijani gymnast. It was hard psychologically in training, but I tried to cope with it. Of course, today I could have done better, but I think it was fine for the first World Cup. The audience supported me very well. I am overfilled with emotions,” Safarova said.
The 37th Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships will last until Sept. 22.
The Championships is the qualification competition for the Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo in 2020. As such, the first 16 individual gymnasts (max. two gymnasts per country) in the all-around ranking will qualify for the Games.
As for the gymnasts within group exercises, Bulgaria, Russia and Italy have already qualified according to the results of the last World Championships. At this year’s Championships, the best five teams will qualify for the Tokyo-2020 Olympic Games according to the all-around scores.
More than 300 gymnasts from 61 countries are competing for nine sets of medals. “Fairy Tales will come to life" is the motto of the championships.
Nine gymnasts are representing Azerbaijan at the World Championship, which is being held at the National Gymnastics Arena. Zohra Agamirova, Veronika Hudis, Yelyzaveta Luzan and Maryam Safarova perform in individual competitions. Ayshan Bayramova, Diana Ahmadbayli, Aliya Pashayeva, Zeynab Hummatova and Darya Sorokina participate in group exercises as part of the Azerbaijani team.
Photo: Zaur Mustafayev