One of the main autumn events in the gymnastics calendar is the European TeamGym Championship, which starts today in Baku. The youngest type of gymnastics promises a bright spectacle, because it essentially has no analogues. Therefore, three days of competition at the National Gymnastics Arena promise to be extremely exciting.
As reported by İdman.biz, TeamGym is one of the young types of European gymnastics. The first continental championship in this sport took place in Finland in 1996 and was called EuroTeam. The first official EURO took place in 2010 in Sweden. Here, along with adult gymnasts, teams consisting of juniors also competed.
“Azerbaijan will become the 14th country to host the European TeamGym Championships since its start in 1996. The event in Baku will be our 8th official EURO,” says Per Sjostrand, President of the TeamGym Technical Committee of European Gymnastics. He also drew some parallels: “Azerbaijan first took part in the TeamGym competition in 2018, and now, six years later, we are in Baku at the European Championships.”
He said that the competition will be held in a new format. “For the first time, the warm-up room will be located next to the competition arena. In addition, there will be separate places for judges where they can evaluate the teams’ performance. With many years of experience in organizing high-level events, the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation has a wealth of knowledge. And we are pleased that the EURO is being held in Baku,” said the head of the Technical Committee.
Sjostrand expressed satisfaction with the way TeamGym is developing on the continent. “This species is cultivated in about twenty countries, but every year there are more and more of them. We are extremely happy about this, because even earlier “TeamGym” began with club tournaments. And now Azerbaijan will become the 14th country to host the European TeamGym Championship.”
Teams from fourteen countries – the Czech Republic, Denmark, Austria, Estonia, Finland, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, as well as the hosts will perform at the National Gymnastics Arena. 541 participants will be divided into 46 teams.
As for our team, it included Adil Hajizadeh, Nihat Muradli, Elnur Mamedov, Aydin Alizadeh, Ramin Damirov, Rasul Akhmedzadeh, Mansum Safarov and Tofig Aliyev. Chingiz Veliyev is announced as a reserve. Some of them already have experience performing in TeamGym, and the silver medalist of the continental championship in tumbling, Tofik Aliyev, was even included in the team of stars following the results of the previous European Championship in this discipline.
And for sure the competition in Baku will reveal new stars of this type, but the main thing is successful performance as a team. It is not for nothing that the slogan of the competition is the motto: “One team – one goal.”
Zaki Feizullaev
İdman.biz