"Heydar Aliyev has done very important work in the direction of the development of sports in our country."
Olympic champion, vice president of the Azerbaijan Shooting Federation and the National Olympic Committee Zemfira Meftahetdinova told Idman.biz about the National Leader Heydar Aliyev.
He said that the care and attention shown by the Great Leader, whose 102nd birthday is today, to sports was a great motivation for athletes: "After the collapse of the USSR, coaches and athletes all went in different directions. After the Great Leader came to power, he brought everyone together again. The care shown by the state to sports was a stimulus for them. Heydar Aliyev often held meetings with athletes and was interested in individual sports. This attitude created confidence in the development of sports in our country. It was precisely as a result of this attention that this field began to develop rapidly in our country in a short time. Olympic sports complexes were built in the regions, the necessary conditions were created for the development of sports. Athletes, in turn, tried to justify this trust."
Meftahetinova recalls her meetings with the National Leader with great pride: "I met the Great Leader for the first time in 1995 at an event organized at the Palace of Hand Games (now the Sports Palace - ed.). That day, I was awarded the Progress medal by Heydar Aliyev. In 2000, the Great Leader awarded me the Glory order. This was a great honor for me. It is a great honor for me to receive a medal from the hands of such a great personality as Heydar Aliyev."
Aytac Sahad
Idman.biz
