“We are not even considering traveling to the European Championship that will be held in Yerevan”.
These words were spoken by Irada Ashumova, head coach of Azerbaijan’s national shooting team.
The European Championship in 10m shooting is scheduled to take place in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, from February 27 to March 5. At present, there are signs of warming in interstate relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Against this backdrop, questions arose over whether the Azerbaijan national team would participate in the first major competition of the International Shooting Sport Federation in 2026.
However, 67-year-old Irada Ashumova, an Olympic medalist and three-time world championship medalist, stated that the team will not take part in the event.
“During the III CIS Games, Armenian athletes were provided with state-level security guarantees by our side. They came, but did not compete here. Therefore, we decided not to participate in this European Championship either. We did not even apply to any state institution for this,” Ashumova told prosport.az.
It should be noted that the president of the Azerbaijan Shooting Federation is Minister of Internal Affairs, Colonel General Vilayat Eyvazov. He was re-elected as federation president for a second term on the 18th of last month.
