The National Team starts the season from the Premier League tournament. At the top-rated tournament of the World Karate Federation (WKF), which will be held in the capital of France will take part 21 sportsmen from Azerbaijan.
Head coach and chairman of the coaching committee of the federation Rahman Hatamov and his assistant, head coach Rashad Huseynov decided on the participation of a several athletes in different weight categories in the tournament. Firdovsi Farzaliev, Jeyhun Mustafayev and Nijat Abbasov will participate in -60 kg weight category, Niyazi Aliyev, Tural Agalarzade and Uzeyir Alishanov in -67 kg weight category. After a long pause, finally, the leader of world karate Rafael Agayev can enter the tatami in the weight category. Rafiz Hasanov and Shahin Guluzade will also compete for medals in this weight category along with Rafael Agayev, which due to injuries missed several prestigious international competitions last year, including the European and World Championships.
Ayhan Mamaev, Panah Abdullayev and Tural Kamally will enter the tatami in -84 kg weight category, Orhan Heydarli, Ali Jafarov and Rasul Alizadeh will take part in competitions in the +84 kg weight category along with captain Shahin Atamov. The 4 karate girls will also participate in competitions. Nurana Aliyeva (-50 kg), Ilaha Gasymova (-55 kg) and Farida Abiyeva (-61 kg) will participate in kumite events and Adilya Gurbanova will compete for medals in the kata discipline. Senior kata coach Vahid Ayvazov included Tural Baldjanly, Rafik Amirov and Roman Heydarli to the composition of the Team. Distinguished athletes will be awarded with the relevant prizes from the general sponsor, the International Bank of Azerbaijan.
Among referees serving Paris Premier League will be also our international referees - Vice-president of the Federation Yusif Mammadov, the chairman of the judiciary committee Jahangir Babaev and Nargiz Mehdieva. The first competition of 2015 will be attended by 929 athletes from 46 countries. The Secretary of the Federation for Media and Public Sanan Magerramov is commissioned to Paris to provide operational information, photos and video broadcasting with performances of our athletes.
The president of the Federation Yashar Bashirov heading a delegation of 30 persons, went to Paris for the Premier League tournament. Our athletes went to Paris on January 22, will return home after 5 days.
