BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 10. I love Baku very much, last year I came here for the first time, and I waited a whole year to come back again, Matvey Petrov, participant of the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Baku, representing Albania, told Trend on Friday.
"Today I performed quite well, I went to the final of the exercise on the gymnastic pommel horse. I hope I do even better in the final. Now the opponents have a very high level of training, there are many good gymnasts, everyone can get a good mark," Petrov noted.
The gymnast said that his next competition after the World Cup in Baku will be the European Championship, and then the last stage of the World Cup in Cairo.
The FIG Artistic Gymnastics Apparatus World Cup is being held at the National Gymnastics Arena on March 9-12. According to the registration list, Azerbaijan has a record for the number of countries, as 173 athletes from 48 National Federations are expected to participate in the competition.
The first two days of the four-day World Cup competitions in Baku will feature qualifying stages, whereas the remaining days – finals, will determine the winners and prize-winners in exercises on individual implements. Following the results of the four-day competitions, the traditional “AGF Trophy” will be presented to the gymnasts who received the highest execution score.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan will be represented by Nikita Simonov and Ivan Tikhonov (men's gymnastics), Samira Gahramanova, and Nazanin Teymurova (women's gymnastics) at the competitions.