"I am proud of myself, I am very happy."
It was said by Imamaddin Khalilov, the para-taekwondo player who won the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games, Idman.biz reports.
Azerbaijani representative, who is the champion in the K44 category at 70 kg, said that he is very proud to have won the first gold medal for Azerbaijan in this category: "I came to Paris as the leader of the world ranking. I almost won all my last races. I was the last world and two-time European champion. The Paralympic championship was also fate. I want to thank our people. I was reading the comments during the intermission. These comments gave me motivation, I felt your confidence."
According to him, his toughest fight was against the Uzbek athlete in the semi-finals: "The last time I beat him was in the final of the world championship. Here I managed to win again. In the final, I met my brother Turkish athlete. Brotherhood won. I would like to thank the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Azerbaijan Taekwondo Federation, the National Paralympic Committee and "Neftchi" JSC, who helped me along the way. The greatest thanks goes to our President Ilham Aliyeva and our first vice-president Mehriban Aliyeva. As a result of your care for our sport, today we played our national anthem and waved our flag in Paris."
Idman.biz
