Azerbaijan Olympic Committee organises shooting tournament with journalists

The National Olympic Committee of Azerbaijan, in cooperation with the Azerbaijan Shooting Federation, organised a shooting tournament for journalists. At the Baku Shooting Centre, the NOC gathered 60 representatives from 30 media outlets, as well as Olympic and world champions, for a 10-metre air pistol shooting competition.

Chingiz Huseynzade, Vice President of the Azerbaijan National Olympic Committee (NOC), and Zemfira Meftakhetdinova, Vice President of the Azerbaijan Shooting Federation, attended the opening ceremony, which was held during the Novruz holiday, along with Olympic, World and European champions and renowned athletes. Journalists and media representatives were also present.

During the ceremony, Chingiz Huseynzade spoke about the importance of the tournament. "We used to organise such competitions in chess and checkers, but this year we decided to try shooting," said Huseynzade.

The president continued: "We have many journalists participating in this competition. We want this competition to become a tradition and every year on the eve of Novruz we meet with representatives of sports media from Azerbaijan".

The authorities thanked the journalists for their presence. AZERBAIJAN NOC

"I am grateful to the leadership of the Azerbaijan Shooting Federation and others who have been our supporters. We also have our famous athletes participating in this event. They have excelled in various sports and achieved great result. Today they have come to support the journalists. I congratulate you all on this holiday and wish success to the participants," said Huseynzade.

Zemfira Meftakhetdinova, vice-president of the Azerbaijan Shooting Federation and Olympic champion, greeted the participants. She wished them success. Xazar Isayev, President of the Fair Play Commission of the NOC, stressed the importance of this initiative and thanked the journalists and organisers. The Sportsman newspaper presented gifts to the NOC of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijan Shooting Federation. Just before that, music took centre stage with performances by groups and artists.

60 journalists and some of the country's top athletes joined the authorities. AZERBAIJAN NOC

It was an exciting competition. 60 media representatives from nearly 30 media organisations took part in the tournament. Rasul Mammadov, a national-level judge appointed by the Azerbaijan Shooting Federation, acted as head referee and Böyükhanim Astanova, an international-level judge, as chief secretary.

The competition was supported by the Olympic World newspaper, Sportsman magazine and the olympic.az and brendsport.az websites. Leman Quluzadə (sabahinfo.az) won with 65 points. Elturk Hasanli of ARB channel also scored 65 points, but finished second due to additional indicators. Zaur Abbasov of CBC Sport was third with 64 points from 10 shots.

Seyhun Isayev (Brendsport.az) and Ilham Ismayilov (Kaspi newspaper) finished fourth and fifth respectively. They were awarded Active Participant diplomas.