Azerbaijani taekwondo is not going through its best period right now: local athletes have not shown high results for years, and rare successes are mainly due to legionnaires like Gashim Magomedov.
Ilkin Shahbazov, the head coach of the country's junior national team (U11), spoke to Idman.Biz about the reasons for the stagnation and the state of the personnel reserve.
"Talking about the senior national team is not within my competence, and from a professional point of view, it would not be ethical. But I can take responsibility for the children's sector: there is no problem with development here. The current European champions in the U16 category started their journey five or six years ago in my team," the coach noted.
Ilkin Shahbazov said that today we are doing our best for the planned development of athletes so that they can make a painless transition from youth structures to the youth national team.
"Again, I repeat: I am not ready to assess the current state of the main team, but I certainly believe in the future of our sport," said Ilkin Shahbazov.