Three months left until the World Games: sports, our representatives and our rivals

Three months remain until the main multi-sport event for non-Olympic sports this year. We are talking about the World Games, which will be held in Chengdu, China, from August 7-17.

Idman.biz reports that the Games will cover 35 sports and more than 4,000 athletes from more than 100 countries will compete for victory.

Among them is the Azerbaijani team, which will be represented in tumbling, acrobatics, aerobics, kickboxing and karate. Almost the entire composition of participants in sports has been determined, and it has become clear who our athletes will compete with in the Games.

Madina Mustafayeva and Vladimir Dolmatov, a mixed pair who won a silver medal at the world championship, will perform in aerobics. Experts highlight Brazilians Tamires Silva and Lukas Barbosa, winners of the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, USA, and expect strong competition among couples. Duets from Japan, Italy, Romania and Ukraine will also demonstrate their skills in China.

Interestingly, Mustafayeva and Dolmatov won a bronze medal in the "dance" category as part of the aerobics team at the World Games three years ago.

Two-time world champions Agasif Rahimov and Raziya Seyidli will perform in the mixed pairs competition in acrobatics. Their rivals will be gymnasts from Spain, Israel, Kazakhstan, Portugal and Ukraine. Two-time world champions Murad Rafiyev and Daniel Abbasov will compete in the men's duet, and they will compete with athletes from Bulgaria, Spain, Kazakhstan, Portugal and Ukraine.

In the group competition at the World Games, world championship bronze medalists Riad Safarov, Rasul Seyidli, Abdullah Al-Meshaihi and Seymur Jafarov will participate. Teams from China, Great Britain, Germany, Israel and Ukraine will also compete here.

At the world championship in Guimarães, which was a qualifying event for the World Games, the Azerbaijani team won four gold, one silver and three bronze medals, and took second place in the team competition, losing to China. It is expected that local athletes will try to perform better in their own country at the World Games.

All five categories of acrobatics – men's and women's pairs, mixed pairs, men's and women's groups – will be represented in Chengdu. Several teams are planning to develop new programs for this event.

Two-time world champion Mikhail Malkin will compete in the tumbling competition. His rivals will be gymnasts from Great Britain, USA, Canada, France, Portugal and Spain.

In kickboxing, all eyes will be on world champion Amin Guliyev (63.5 kg). He won the right to compete in the multi-forum by winning the European Championship in Athens last year. Eight athletes will compete in his weight category at the World Games. These are Vinicius Oliveira (Brazil), Mostefa Nambininjanahari (Madagascar), Stanislav Renita (Moldova), Emmanuel Cardenas (Switzerland), Cakrit Kongtok (Thailand), Gleb Mazur (Ukraine) and Asilbek Sadikov (Uzbekistan).

Three-time world karate champion Irina Zaretska (68 kg) also qualified for the World Games. The first licenses to China were given at the World Championship in Budapest in 2023, and the silver medalist of the Tokyo Olympics won the champion title there for the third time in a row. Her rival in the final, Yelena Quirici (Switzerland), and the bronze medalist of the World Championship, Seiko Zefanya (Indonesia), will also perform in Chengdu.

The remaining participants were determined based on the rating. They are Eda Eltemur (Turkey), Hadir Hendi (Egypt), Kama Tsubasa (Japan), Giaogiao Li (China) and Talia Sombedir (France).

Zaki Feyzullayev
Idman.biz