Niyameddin Pashayev, Vice-President of the Azerbaijan Taekwondo Federation, who chaired the taekwondo competitions at the III CIS Games, shared his impressions of the competition and its organization.
The world champion stated in his statement to sportnet.az that the competition was organized at a high level.
According to him, the organization was at the level of international standards: "The competition was organized at a very high level. When we arrived in Mingachevir 15 days before the start, we saw that most of the work had been done. And 3 days before the start, we were faced with a completely ready arena. I think the competition was organized in accordance with international standards. Both guests and foreign and local athletes were able to test their strength."
Pashayev also touched upon the defeat of some Azerbaijani athletes in the semifinals: "We should not only look at today. We are a team as a whole. We had potential athletes who were close to reaching the final. One of them was Zenfira Hasanova, the European champion, who is considered one of the most experienced among women. But there was bad luck, none of them could reach the final due to bad luck. However, the results they showed in training and tournaments showed that they would reach the final. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. But at the end of the day, Vasif showed a very good fight and finished the competition with a gold medal."
The vice-president, who evaluated the level of the competitions as a former athlete, noted that all meetings were held in a tense struggle: "Both our athletes and those from abroad showed very intense fights. There was no easy victory. This is the sport itself - it is a struggle, the strong wins."