Report.az
It is gratifying that the U-15 national teams of Azerbaijan in Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling became European champions.
This was announced by Sarkhan Musayev, press secretary of the Azerbaijan Wrestling Federation (AGF), to "Report".
He shared his impressions about the competition held in Caorle, Italy:
"Our results remain stable. More of our athletes could have won gold medals. We had a lot of final matches. But they lost in the decisive match due to certain mistakes. In any case, this is a beginning. There are wrestlers who participated in a big competition, an international tournament for the first time. Inevitably, experience and excitement played a role. Some of our Greco-Roman wrestlers lost by "touch" due to a momentary mistake in the matches where they were ahead. These were also athletes who could win medals."
The federation official said that despite certain shortcomings, it is gratifying that both teams took first place:
"Russia is considered the strongest wrestling country in Europe. We achieved 5 victories against athletes from this country in both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, and a total of 10 victories. This is also a good result. Our girls participated in this European championship for the first time with a full team. The reason was the holding of the championship in this age group. Holding the U-15 and U-17 Azerbaijan championships is an incentive for the development of women's wrestling. The girls won three medals at the European Championship. We set a record in terms of both the quality and number of medals, as well as the points scored. Freestyle wrestlers updated the record in terms of points scored."
S. Musayev emphasized that the representatives of Azerbaijan also performed well at the U-20 European Championship:
"Our freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling teams took second place. We could have been champions too. I can say the same here. There were certain final matches in which we lost the gold medal by a small margin. Women's wrestling made us happy again. Two of the four athletes won gold medals. They are the athletes we expect to be among the medalists in the next Olympics. These victories show that we are on the right track. After a short break, we will prepare for the U-20 World Championship, which will be held next month in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Our U-17 teams are preparing for the World Championship, which will be held from July 28 to August 3 in Athens, the capital of Greece."
