Idman.biz
Azerbaijani swimming has achieved a historic success at the III CIS Games, winning its first medals in these competitions.
Idman.biz reports that our swimmers remained without awards at the Games previously held in Kazan (2021) and Brest, Belarus (2023).
However, this year's home tournament became a turning point: several of our athletes made it onto the medal protocol, demonstrating a qualitative leap in the sport.
Mehri Abdurrahmanli was the first to open the historic page. She won a bronze medal in the 100-meter butterfly distance, proving that our women's swimming can compete at the regional level. This medal served as a psychological stimulus for both the team and the entire national team.
Later, the boys continued the relay. Yegor Maynitski won a bronze medal in the 200-meter individual medley, demonstrating the breadth of our team's preparation. Suleyman Ismayilzade, in turn, won a silver medal in the 1500-meter freestyle, once again confirming his strength in his traditional distance.
These results show that Azerbaijan is forming a competitive team in several styles and distances at the same time. For athletes, this is a logical continuation of the development in recent seasons, and for the team, it is an indication that systematic work has yielded results at the most important home start.
The successes achieved are not accidental, but the result of years of planned work: increased competition within the national team, increased requirements for training, and infrastructure development. The presence in the team of swimmers who won medals in both the butterfly, medley, and long-distance freestyle is the result of extensive and proper preparation.
Mehri Abdurrahmanli's bronze in the 100m butterfly, Yegor Maynitski's bronze in the 200m individual medley, and Suleyman Ismayilzade's silver in the 1500m freestyle are no longer individual successes, but an indicator of the new reality of Azerbaijani swimming.
Our team has proven that it is possible to turn potential into medals. The home Games were an ideal venue to showcase this development to both fans and rivals. Moving forward, work remains on the stability of the team and staff. But the main thing is that our swimmers, having climbed the podium for the first time at the CIS Games, have taken a big step towards taking a permanent place among the leaders of the region.
Teymur Tushiyev
