Observers claim low sports level of Islamic Solidarity Games

In the course of the Islamic Solidarity Games, athletes are competing for medals in conditions of weak competition, and a low level of competition can be seen in comparison with Olympic Games, World and Europe Championships. This opinion was voiced by Azerbaijani sports commentators interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

"How can we talk about a high level of the Games when we know that Ruslan Lunev, who represents Azerbaijan, has won three gold medals in shooting at the Islamic Solidarity Games. Meanwhile, at competitions involving European athletes, he is not able to occupy the places higher the than the 16^th or 17^th," notes Amal Abushev, an editor of the sports website "sport7.az" and an observer of the newspaper "Football Plus". And he continued: "An Azerbaijani athlete also won the gold medal in swimming, although we never had good results in this sport."

"Of course, it is nice when the hymn of Azerbaijan sounds and the flag of our country is risen in honour of the winners. However, this should not be achieved in the absence of strong competition," emphasized Amal Abushev.

In his turn, Aziz Kerimov, a sports observer of the agency "Turan", has noted that the Islamic Solidarity Games "occupies a low place in the hierarchy of international competitions."

"By world standards, this is a very low-ranking competition. The prestige of any tournament is determined by the records set then. However, in the course of the Islamic Solidarity Games, we cannot expect not only a world or European record, but even a record of Africa or Asia," Aziz Kerimov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.