“The most important thing is that Azerbaijan’s anthem has sounded at Milli Gimnastika Arenası (National Gymnastics Arena), Vice-President of Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation (AGF) Altay Hasanov said in his interview with Trend News Agency commenting the results of the FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics in Baku.

“Our anthem suits this arena very much. Our another gymnastics festival was a success. I am grateful to the First Lady, President of Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation Mehriban Aliyeva. We thank all our fans, the Organizing Committee and all those who worked tirelessly to have successful competitions. We also express our gratitude to mass media representatives for a great coverage of the event,” the AGF Vice-President said.

“The Organizing Committee did its best and everyone saw that the first-ever World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics held in Azerbaijan was at the highest level.”

“Both we and the athletes were preparing hard. All the guests, athletes, coaches and sports officials are very content with the organizational level of the event. I would like to mention that we are very happy that we succeeded in organization, and, at the same time, achieved results. Naturally, we expected good results from Oleg Stepko,” Altay Hasanov emphasized.

The AGF Vice-President noted that Parallel Bars are Stepko's main apparatus and he succeeded to win the gold medal. Marina Nekrasova also performed well.

According to Altay Hasanov, the first day of the competitions was quite difficult.

“Our fans so actively cheer for our athletes, that, sometimes it is difficult for them to perform. Performing at home is easy, but requires high responsibility. Therefore, Stepko was not doing very well on the first day. However, then he braced himself up, performed well and even won three medals. I hope, we will have many victories ahead,” said AGF Vice-President.

He expressed his contentment with the results.

“Now, we are at the stage of preparation. Hard work and victories are ahead. I hope that Oleg Stepko will do his best and successfully perform at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. But I can’t say anything about medals. Those, who have not won medals today, made great efforts as well. But, it is the beginning of the year and their success is ahead,” AGF Vice-President added.

He also spoke about the work done by the Organizing Committee.

“I don’t want to praise the work done by the Organizing Committee a lot, but their successful work is obvious. It is our first experience in Artistic Gymnastics. We have practice in holding large-scale competitions in Rhythmic Gymnastics. It is the first one in Artistic Gymnastics, which turned out to be successful. Taking into account the feedback from the officials of the International Federation of Gymnastics, its Technical Committee, I can say that they are content with the events. Member of the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Gymnastics Morinari Watanabe highly appreciated the organizational level of the World Challenge Cup. All people who understand and feel it, saw that the organizational level of the World Cup in Baku was equal to that of the World Championships. We are very happy that the competitions were held at high level. We are also content with the results. In one word, the festival was a success. Many thanks for your participation in our gymnastics festival. I congratulate everyone,” Altay Hasanov concluded.

Trend News Agency, February 21, 2016