Russia, Germany, Azerbaijan top medals list of European Games in Baku

BAKU, June 26. /TASS/. The Russian national team way before end of the European Games tops the list of medals. Before the Games are over, the Russian athletes may bring 66 more medals. The nearest competitors do not have chances to become ahead of Russia. Germany, which is behind Russia lacking 76 medals, may gain maximum 63 medals, and Azerbaijan, which has 46 medals now, may have the final score of 78 medals only. The UK’s team, if most lucky, may take home only 79 medals. Belarusian athletes, who have received 42 medals, may compete for 20 additional medals only. As of Wednesday, the Russian athletes have already packed home a total of 123 medals, which include 59 gold, 32 silver and 32 bronze medals and they are followed by the host, Azerbaijan, having 46 medals (15 gold). The teams participating in the Games will compete for 59 sets of medals, but not any national team will be able to gain gold medals enough to catch up with the leader. Russia still claims for 50 gold medals, Germany - for 37, Azerbaijan - for 32, and the UK - for 28. The First European Games are held in the Azerbaijani capital Baku on June 12-28, with athletes competing for 253 sets of medals in 20 sports. Competitions in 11 sports - archery, athletics, boxing, beach volleyball, wrestling, cycling, shooting, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo and triathlon - are also the qualifiers for athletes to reserve places in their national teams for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro. The current competition in Baku is the inaugural edition of the European Games, which is a multi-sport event embracing athletes from the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of Europe. The Azerbaijani capital was awarded the historic right to be the first city hosting the European Games on December 8, 2012 at the 41st European Olympic Committee (EOC) General Assembly in Italy’s Rome. The European Games will be held every four years and the next international competition will take place in 2019. A total of over 6,000 athletes from 50 European NOCs are competing at 18 competition venues located in four separate clusters of Baku. Five of the venues were built specially for the European Games and they are the National Gymnastics Arena, BMX Velopark, Baku Aquatics Centre, Baku Shooting Centre and Olympic Stadium. Read more