Results of the competition of climbers named after Akif Rustamov

Press-conference of the Mountaineering and Climbing Federation held on Saturday was on the results of a two-day tournament in memory of outstanding climber of the country, Akif Rustamov. The members of the Presidium of the Federation, Nizami  and Saridan Mursagulovs informed about the aims and objectives of the tournament, and the identity of Akif Rustamov.

It was noted that such a representative tournament aims to prepare young, promising climbers, and give them an opportunity to go international. Then the winners of the three types of competitions were awarded with medals and cups.

"A large preparatory work has been carried out, and the results showed that  there is a greta number of talented and promising athletes in the country.

Mountain climbing is an important element of preparation of mountain riflemen and one of our goals is to train people able to fight in the mountains, because a large mountainous part of the country is under occupation," said a member of the Presidium, Nizami Mursagulov.

Vice-President of the Federation, Saridan Mursagulov, noted that many members of today's competition are students and alumni  of Akif Rustamov, and this tournament will give a significant boost to the sport, which in the future may become an Olympic.

Answering the question  how  he  assesses  conducting of similar tournament with a similar name and at the same time by the Federation of Extreme Sports, Mursagulov said that he considered it wrong. "We have been preparing for several months and  agreed the tournament issue  with  Akif’s family. We also invited members  of Fairex, but instead, they held the tournament under the same title," he said.

 Akif Rustamov’s  daughter, Esmira,  expressed  her indignation  with the actions of  Fairex, calling them tactless. "We have agreed to my father's friends from the Mountaineering Federation to host the tournament  named after him. Therefore, the actions of  Fairex are  tactless and unacceptable," she said.

Representative  of Fairex, who did not want to  name himself, tried to justify the actions of his leadership,  and came to the point that several years ago  Fairex  conducted a tournament named Akif Rustamov. The questions is: how such a tournament  could be  held, if Akif died just two years ago; a representative of Fairex could not answer.

In response to accusations of  Akif Rustamov’s daughter, he said he wanted to show respect of Fairex to the  memory of the famous athlete. -02В-