President of Azerbaijan, President of National Olympic Committee Ilham Aliyev has met on September 3 at the administrative building of NOC with winners of the 9th European Youth Olympic Festival and their coaches.

Opening the meeting President ILHAM ALIYEV said:

Our meetings with sportsmen in the National Olympic Committee have become traditional. We met here at different times, shared joy of the sportsmen's victories and talked about their future. The reason why we have gathered here today is also very pleasant. Our junior athletes have succeeded in the big international European tournament, the 9th European Youth Olympic Festival, taking the sixth place. Ranking sixth among nearly fifty countries is indeed a great result.

Our athletes have won seven gold medals in this festival. It is a high result. As I was informed, the teams ahead of us were Russia, Great Britain, Italy, Germany and Ukraine, the countries with population exceeding Azerbaijan's several times.

Of course, taking the sixth place shows that junior sport is on a very high level in Azerbaijan. I am very pleased with that. Special attention has been paid to development of children's and junior sport in Azerbaijan. Those are our future. On the one hand, young generation is growing up, and on the other hand, our young people show great interest in sports. And our goal is to bring up healthy young generation. Doing so requires that the work in sport clubs be well organized as well as federations, the Ministry of Youth and Sport, the National Olympic Committee, other institutions, in other word, the entire sport community concentrate on the same point.

Today, there are very good opportunities for the people in Azerbaijan to go in for sport. Modern sport complexes have been built and put into operation in various regions of Azerbaijan: over ten of them are already functioning, while construction of up to twenty more has either begun or is to begin soon. So, modern sports establishments are under construction in every place of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan is a venue for various international competitions. Over the past years, Azerbaijan has hosted European and world championships among both juniors and seniors. It demonstrates the trust and respect the international sporting community shows to Azerbaijan.

I would also like to note that the countries we left behind in the European Youth Olympic Festival also have huge sporting potential. Those are Belgium, Romania, Poland, France, Holland, Hungary, Serbia, Latvia, Croatia, Georgia, Slovakia, Sweden, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Switzerland, Denmark, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Ireland, Austria, Belarus, Israel, Finland, Norway, Bosnia, Czechia, Greece and Luxemburg. Armenian team took the last place in the competition. It failed to win a single gold, silver or bronze medal. This is our superiority, and this is the result of our activities.

The President expressed hope that young Azerbaijani sportsmen will further succeed in other international tournaments, including the Olympic Games.

Addressing the meeting coach of the national young judoists team RASHAD HASANOV expressed gratitude to the President of Azerbaijan for care rendered to them:

Mr President, we have dedicated this victory to the 10th anniversary of Your election to the office of President of NOC. We are very happy because such results have not been achieved so far in European Olympic Festival. You mentioned we have taken the 6th place. Teams of the countries You counted that follow us were very strong rivals. Our victory is the result of care and attention You show to the sports. We thank You.

It was underlined in the meeting the young sportsmen are hardly training for future contents. It was stated young sportsman Ramil Guliyev is the first from the country having got license to Beijing Olympic Games. The President was informed our athletes will attend in near future a number of influential competitions. Speakers noted Azerbaijan has become one of the sports centers in the world, giant sports complexes, which host international contests, such Heydar Aliyev Sports and Concert Complex, Baku Sports Palace and Athletics Arena have been reconstructed according to the world standards and launched.

At the end of the meeting, young athletes and their coaches were photographed with President Ilham Aliyev.

BAKU. 04.09.2007. AzeTtag.