An Azerbaijani gymnast Aliya Garayeva and the country’s group team reached the final of the Olympic tournament in Beijing!

It has become known after the completion of today’s qualification events.

Reaching the final of the Games by Azerbaijani group team is especially significant as it is already regarded as a success. Gymnasts – Vafa Huseynova, Anna Bitieva, Valeriya Yegay, Alina Trepina, Anastasiya Prasolova and Dina Gorina brilliantly performed both compositions (3 hoops / 4 clubs – to the accompaniment of rhythmic national music, and 5 ropes – to the accompaniment of cheerful Bulgarian music) and having taken the 8th place with 31.45 points among 12 teams, reserved a place for themselves in the final.

“We are very happy that our debut in the Olympiad turned out to be so successful. The girls worked hard, trainings, training camp – and here is the result! We succeeded in taking the lead over the strong collectives such as teams from Spain, Japan, Greece and Brazil. The success is especially pleasant if to take into account that it is the fourth year the group exists. And according to this index, we are the youngest among other teams. I am sure that the whole Azerbaijan and, perhaps, the half of Bulgarian population, which knows I am working in Baku, supported us,” the coach Mariana Vasileva smiles.

The all-around final among group teams, will begin at 8 o’clock in the morning (Baku time) on August 24, where national teams of Belarus, Russia, China, Italy, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Israel will also perform.

An individual gymnast Aliya Garayeva also entered her name on a list of finalists. She received 69.2 points in the qualification of the all-around. This result enabled her to take the 7th place and reach the final.

Our other gymnast Dinara Gimatova needed only 0.3 points in order to reach the final of the tournament. She took the 11th place with 66.525 points and will perform in the final only if one of the finalists refuses to perform in the event.

The best result was given by a Russian gymnast Yevgeniya Kanayeva – 74.075 points. Olga Kapranova (Russia), Anna Bessonova (Ukraine), Inna Jukova (Belarus), Aliya Yusupova (Kazakhstan), Natalya Godunko (Ukraine), Irina Risenzon (Israel), Simona Peycheva (Bulgaria) and Almudena Sid (Spain) will also take part in the final.

The all-around final among individual gymnasts will be held on August 23 and will start at 15:00 (Baku time).