BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 10
Trend:
Farid Gayibov, Minister of Youth and Sports, European Gymnastics President congratulated Morinari Watanabe on FIG presidency, Trend reports citing his statement.
"The beginning of last month was highlighted with the elections to the Authorities of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). The 83rd FIG Congress, postponed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, finally took place in Antalya (TUR) on November 5-7 and marked the end of the Olympic Cycle that unusually lasted for 5 years," he said.
"As you know, I was nominated for the FIG presidency by the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation (AGF). Though my candidature turned out to be unsuccessful this time, I would like to thank you all for your support and congratulate Mr. Watanabe and all newly elected and re-elected officials and members of the FIG Authorities, including the European representatives. I hope that efficient and fruitful work will be carried out by them for the Gymnastics prosperity within the next three years," he said.
"As President of European Gymnastics and ex-officio member of the FIG Executive Committee, I will do my best to support the FIG strategy directed to the further development of Gymnastics disciplines, soliciting the European interests," he said.
"November was also highlighted by the Worlds in Trampoline Gymnastics. It was held in my hometown Baku (AZE) lasting 2 weeks. First, the competitions of the 35th World Championships (November 18-21), followed by the 28th World Age Group Competitions (November 25-28). Having hosted the 2021 Aerobics Worlds in the pandemic period, the Local Organising Committee has carried out a great deal of work in close cooperation with the FIG which organised several World Championships this year," he said.
"Although the competition was held without spectators, due to the great number of participants, the National Gymnastics Arena’s stands were brought to life and reigned with excitement and cheer filled by the participating delegations’ members," he said.
"I would like to congratulate the winners and all the athletes who succeeded to join the competitions to demonstrate their skills. This is one of those historic times, when the World Championships are held in the same year as the Olympic Games, which is why it was especially exciting to see the new generation of Trampoline stars, some of which went home with medals," he said.
"Another major event that took place recently was the European Championships in TeamGym. Planned to be held in Denmark in 2020, the original organisers had to cancel the event due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are very grateful to the Portuguese Gymnastics Federation for the responsibility they assumed to host these competitions within a short period of time. The Federation has great experience in organisation of Gymnastics events. The city of Guimaraes alone has historic gymnastics experience as it hosted the Trampoline Gymnastics European Championships in 2014, the Aerobic Gymnastics World Championships in 2018, and this time impressed everyone with high level of organisation again. I express my gratitude to all the delegations who managed to come to participate in the events. There were many fans who came to support their team and we enjoyed the much-needed festive atmosphere," he said.
"TeamGym is a unique discipline which is developed only in Europe. Our goal is to achieve great number of participants on the continental level and have competitions in this discipline at the world level," he said.
"With all the events of the year successfully delivered, it is a good time for us all to reflect and analyse the work we have done to seek improvements for the next year. I wish us all good luck in effective planning that will lead our organisations to the level we are aiming for," he said.
