Idman.biz
The swimming competitions at the III CIS Games were memorable for Azerbaijan with surprise results.
Our swimmers won a total of 13 medals. Two of them were gold, four were silver, and seven were bronze medals.
The coach of the Azerbaijani national team and at the same time one of the champions - Suleyman Ismayilzade's personal coach Ruslan Hatamkhanov spoke about the latest successes of the Azerbaijani national swimming team in an interview with Idman.biz.
– Did you expect so many medals from our team?
– Our coaching staff knew that someone from our athletes would win a gold medal. But we didn't expect so many medals. It was a pleasant surprise for us. Most importantly, we were very happy to be one of the three countries to win a gold medal in swimming. Besides us, only Russian (36 gold) and Belarusian (4 gold) swimmers were able to become champions in the tournament, and we, in turn, joined the ranks of countries that won gold medals.
You know, in Azerbaijan, swimming is sometimes viewed with a bit of skepticism. But we - the coaches working with young people - knew very well that our team is competitive enough. For example, Suleyman Ismayilzade became a finalist of the European Youth Championship (U-18) before he turned 16. And now, at the age of 16, he won a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle.
– But he could have won more gold medals...
– Absolutely! Suleyman narrowly missed first place in the 800-meter distance. We consider this more of a "missing out on gold" than winning silver. In addition, he won two more silver medals in the 200 and 1500 meter distances, and a bronze medal in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay.
– Would we be wrong to say that a new Vladimir Salnikov is growing up (four-time Olympic champion in freestyle swimming at various distances - ed.)?
– Of course, it takes time to reach Salnikov's level. But the fact is that after many years, a swimmer has grown up to the level of being able to compete among adults. This is very important for our swimming.
- Are you sure you can keep him? After all, we often lose our promising athletes after the age of 18...
– The main guarantee is that both he and we are focused on new successes. Ismayilzade is not alone - there is also Oktay Huseynov, another champion of the games. These young people are the near future of Azerbaijani swimming, and we have great hopes for them.
Vugar Vugarli
