2024-10-03 14:27:49
The Azerbaijani aerobics team achieved a phenomenal result at the World Championships in Guimaraes. Having won four gold, one silver and three bronze medals, the team took third place in the overall standings. It is obvious that this achievement will be inscribed in golden letters not only in the history of our acrobatics, but also of all national gymnastics.
As İdman.biz reports, world championships in non-Olympic disciplines are held every two years and Guimaraes took the baton from Baku, which hosted the world championship in 2022. At home, the mixed pair Agasif Ragimov – Razia Seidli won one silver, while the men’s duet Murad Rafiev – Daniel Abbasov won two bronzes.
At the same time, certain prerequisites for a breakthrough in Portugal were quite serious. Last year, both the mixed pair and the men’s duet became absolute European champions, winning in every exercise, and went to the next World Championship with high hopes. In this sense, the voyage to Guimaraes turned out to be a benefit for Azerbaijani acrobatics, which became one of the trendsetters on the world stage. It’s no joke, the team also claimed victory in the team championship, fighting on equal terms with China. And only thanks to the higher place of the men’s group from the Celestial Empire in qualifying, she lost to them in the tiebreaker, winning historic silver.
And then, over the course of two days of finals, the team set and rewrote records, showing an incredible performance. The men’s duet Abbasov – Rafiev first won the title in the combined and then in the balance exercise, after which they won bronze in the tempo exercise. In fact, the guys went to the title for almost ten years, first performing as a duet when Murad was 13 and Daniel was 9 years old. “We are best friends, and now world champions!” Rafiev quite succinctly described what happened.
In turn, the mixed time Ragimov – Seidli also reached a new level of performance. They have been performing together for five years, but in Guimarães, as the International Federation website noted, they became the king and queen of their sport. Following their victory in the balance exercise, they became the strongest in the combined exercise. They performed this composition to a catchy melody that included excerpts from “The Phantom of the Opera,” and the tempo exercise won bronze.
“This is the best moment of our careers. We were ready to win, we believed that we could achieve such a result. After winning the first exercise, we were confident that we would build on our success in subsequent finals,” Seidli noted.
Our men’s group won their first medal at the World Championships. The team consisting of Seymur Jafarov, Abdullah Al-Meshaihi, Rasul Seidli and Riad Safarov made it to all three finals. In the balance exercise, the athletes came fifth, then placed in the top four in the combined exercise, reaching the podium in the tempo exercise. At the same time, the most experienced in the team is Al-Meshaihi, who made a name for himself performing in mixed doubles with Ruhidil Gurbanli. They have repeatedly become winners of World Cups, and also won two silver medals at the 2019 European Games in Minsk. Now Abdullah is one of the most important gymnasts in a group that is achieving recognition on the world stage.
Despite the fact that the team took third place in the overall World Cup standings, in terms of the number of awards it was ahead of Belgium, which took first place, and the Chinese, who took second place. This year, of course, has become the finest hour of Azerbaijani acrobatics and there is no doubt that the team will further increase its achievements.
In addition, following the results of the World Cup, our acrobats won vacancies for the World Games, which will be held next year in Chengdu (China). The mixed couple Rahimov – Seidli, the male duet Rafiev – Abbasov and the male group consisting of Safarov, Seidli, Al-Meshaihi and Jafarov will perform there.
Zaki Feizullaev
İdman.biz