National Gymnastics Arena 100% Ready for the Baku World Challenge Cup

As the FIG World Challenge Cup 2016 AGF Trophy comes closer, the national team gets even more focused on their preparation for the competition, spending the whole day in the hall.

Petro Pakhnyuk, an artistic gymnast from the host country, Azerbaijan, mentioned that the upcoming World Cup will be the first major competition for this Olympic year. “The season’s first event is very important for us as we host it at home. Afterwards, we will prepare for the Olympics step-by-step. Following our World Cup, there will be another one in Qatar. Pre-Olympic Test Event qualifying for the Games will take place in Rio de Janeiro in April.” he said.

This is the National Gymnastics Arena

He mentioned that the National Gymnastics Arena is now fully ready to accommodate the World Cup.”Arena was ready for the event even two weeks before the World Cup, so we can host the competitions even today. Very good gymnasts will come to Baku, including a very strong Japanese team, a few high-class gymnasts from Israel, as well as Ukraine stably brings good athletes. So, we will have serious contest,” he said.

Israeli artistic gymnast Alexander Shatilov insisted that the competition is a very significant event for Azerbaijan, and he believes that the World Cup will run at the highest level.

Alexander Shatilov have already went to Azerbaijan for a lot of times already, including during the time of the first European Games. He cited that the National Arena – the event’s venue – is a very cutting-edge building with an excellent atmosphere, starting from the warm-up hall to the field of play.

He stressed that even though the FIG World Challenge Cup possesses a lesser significance compared to the European Games, it will still not be easy to attain remarkable results due to the presence of the Asian gymnasts in the competition, in addition to the fact that the local gymnasts from Azerbaijan will be their biggest rival in the competition for medals.

Sergei Vaysburg, the Israeli Artistic Gymnasts National team head coach, mentioned that it would be much harder to achieve medal-winning results in the upcoming Baku World Challenge Cup compared to the First European Games.

“The European Games hosted gymnasts only from Europe. But, this is the World Cup and athletes from all over the world will gather in Baku. We shall mention Asian gymnasts who are one of the strongest gymnasts in the world. Anyway, we are here not only to participate, but also to try to take any prize-winning places,” he said.

Uzbekistan gymnastics coach Konstantin Shaulov mentioned that he had already visited several facilities from various countries, but he was amazed that everything is done just splendidly in Baku. “First, it is vast and there is a comfortable hotel inside. I will repeat that it is just splendid.”

Nina Pravdina, the Azerbaijani Women’s Artistic Gymnastics National Team Head Coach, strongly believes that her team will achieve remarkable results in the World Cup, as the gymnasts are already 70-80 percent ready for the competition.

“We still have the main week ahead which promises to be strained enough in terms of preparation for the competition. So, we will try to be in a good form by the start of the event. The girls have some slight injuries, but we try to be strong, undergo treatment and work hard,” she said.

Pravdina also mentioned the remarkable preparations for the Cup at the Arena. “The preparations are going in an intensive way, and it will be very interesting. One of the best parts of the competitions is an Opening Ceremony. In general, this will be the best World Cup, as, in my opinion, no one could hold it better than Azerbaijan. Everything is prepared here at a high level,” the head coach said.

Pavlo Netreba, the Head Coach of the Azerbaijan Men’s National Artistic Gymnastics team, is quite confident that the World Challenge Cup will bring a lot of great things to look forward to.

“Quite strong athletes will participate at the World Challenge Cup,” he noted. “Last year turned out to be saturated and hard, both physically and morally. Moreover, the boys had some slight injuries, which we needed to treat. But, in general, everything is going fine.”

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