In 1999 Olympic Days were held in Es-bjerg, Denmark, in 2001 in Murcia, Spain.

2500 representative from 48 continental countries came to Esbjerg to take part in the European Youth Olympic Days. The holding of competitions on 11 sport disciplines were planned within the Olympic Days. 1625 young athletes from 48 countries, including 855 bays, 770 girls participated in those competitions. Competitions for 87 medals were held.

On July 11 at 8:00 p.m. the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games took place in central stadium of Esbjerg. For the first turn flag of the European Olympic Committee was brought to the stadium. Then the parade of delegation of those countries that participated in the Olympic Games took place. The audience welcomed athletes came from 48 countries of Europe with storm of applauses.

In official part of the ceremony lOC's President Juan Antonio Samaranch made a brief speech. In his speech mentioning the European Youth Olympic Days as a new celebration of the Olympic ideals that was put forward by Pierre de Coubertin, its significance in involving adolescents and youth to the Olympic Movement, he also stated that the friendship, solidarity and peace were the basis of the Olympic ideals. Everyone who attended the Olympic Games should not forget this and should be faithful to these ideals.

33 athletes from our Republic tried their strength in badminton, cycling, tennis, handball (girls), swimming, athletics competitions held in Esbjerg within a week. However, only judokas could attain achievements in those competitions.

While our athletes leaving for Esbjerg experts mentioned that they would win medals in this sport discipline. Competitions were held among boys and girls. 145 boys and 98 girls competed in judo events. Boys held fights in 50, 55, 60, 66, 73, 81, 90, +90kg weight divisions, girls in 44, 48, 52, 63, 70, +70kg weight divisions. Turan Garadaghli and Kifayet Gasimova represented our Republic among girls.

On July 12 the first from our athletes Turan Garadaghli joined the fight in 48kg weight category among girls. Her first opponent on tatami was Turkish athlete. As the referee indicated on start of the match Turan attacked and won complete victory. Ippon. In the second match Turan Garadaghli met with athlete from Holland. Turan having played fine trick and used ippon finished the match before its time. In the fight for the reaching the final Turan met with Russian judoka Tatyana Bobalova who was more experienced and was the winner of the World Youth Games. Though, our athlete held the match on high level and gained more points however, she missed the superiority in the last seconds of the match. Her opponent having used a trick advanced in score and won, Turan's defeat affected her. She couldn't collect her faculties in the fight for the 3rd place, missed the opportunity, she was defeated and sufficed with the 5th place.

Kifayet Gasimova represented our Republic in 52kg category among girls. Kifayet is more experienced judoka than Turan. Everyone was confident in her winning the gold medal in Esbjerg. Kifayet having won complete victory with absolute domination in the 1st and 2nd bouts reached the final. And she met with Marta Vaz an athlete from Poland. The bout was held with Turan's domination. She tried to win complete victory over her opponent. But this caused her to become hot-tempered and sometimes to forget defense. At the end of the match Polish judoka could equalize the score. Though, Kifayet attacked very harder in the rest time but she couldn't advance in score. Referees decided the fate of this bout. There was no doubt that victory would be given to Kifayet who was more active in the fight. However, two of referees preferred to give the victory to Polish athlete. And our athlete had to hold the fight for bronze of the European Youth Olympic Days. In the bout for the third place Kifayet attacked her opponent from the first seconds. She could use arm lock trick and won complete victory.

In the events held among boys Tural Abbasov (50kg), Jafarov (55kg), Emin Isgandarov (60kg), Ruslan Aliyev (66kg), Turan Musayev (73kg), Nuraddin Salimov (81kg) preserved the sport honor of our Republic.

Tural Abbasov held the first two matches on high level in competitions held among boys in paperweight division and won victory over judokas from Estonia and Ukraine. Tural held the fight with Polish athlete Amil Sulek with confident. However, hardly had Polish athlete played a trick referees marked that. In the result our athlete lost the match by score. In the match for the 3rd place Tural won in scores his opponent from Israel and gained bronze medal. This achievement of Tural who participated in such great event for the first time was highly appreciated by experts.

Our athletes competing in 55, 60, 66kg weight divisions performed on low level of their possibilities. Only Emin Isgandarov could fight in equal level with his opponents. He took the 5th place that brought test point for our team.

In 73kg weight Turan Musayev competed. Turan held the first match with Ovchinnikov, a judoka from Latvia. Our athlete held more active fight on tatami and having used several tricks won with scores. In the second match Tural met with Roman Novikov, athlete of Ukraine and contended with confidence and won. In the Illrd bout Turan's opponent was our countryman Rahib Babayev who represented Russia team. Rahib mastered secrets of Azerbaijan and Russia judo schools and having won the victory in this match reached the final. Tural had to held the fight for bronze. Turan Musayev defeated Italian judoka Marko Favaro in scores and brought bronze medal for our country.

Everybody hoped that Nuraddin Salimov who represented our republic in 81kg weight category would return with gold medal from Esbjerg. The first match indicated that our judoka was really strong. Nuraddin Salimov for the first time holding the fight on tatami with judoka from Georgia won victor over the opponent very easily. In the following bout athlete from German couldn't stand Nuraddin's attacks. In the fight for the reaching the final our athlete being sure of himself relaxed and lost the bout to Moldavian judoka with a little difference. In the match for the lllrd place Nuraddin won complete victory over his Ukrainian opponent in the first minutes.

Results of our girl handball players participated in Esbjerg could be considered satisfactory.

Girls' handball teams from Azerbaijan, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Holland, Norway and Macedonia joined the competitions held within the Vth Summer Olympic Games. In each of these countries handball is favorable and it is a sport discipline in which certain accomplishments are achieved. And spectators became witnesses of strenuous fights held in two semi groups. After group competitions Azerbaijani young handball players held the fight for the seventh place. For this time our girls could take the superiority over Latvian athletes and won victory. Azerbaijan handball players took the 7th place in the Olympic Days.