Lala Yusifova ( az, Lalə Yusifova, born 16 October 1996) is a retired Azerbaijani

rhythmic gymnast Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform on a floor with an apparatus: hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon. The sport combines elements of gymnastics, dance and calisthenics; gymnasts must be strong, flexible, agile, dexterous and co ...

Career

Yusifova began competing in junior internationals in 2009. She won the silver medal in ball at the 2010 European Junior Championships and briefly competed as a member of the Azerbaijani Group gymnasts who won the bronze medal 2011 European Junior Championships in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

. Yusifova debuted as a full senior in 2012. In the absence of most veteran rhythmic gymnasts competing in Grand Prix after the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

she was able to compete at the 2012 Grand Prix Final in

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

where she won silver medals in ribbon and clubs behind the reigning Olympic silver medalist

Daria Dmitrieva Darya Andreyevna Dmitriyeva ( rus, Дарья Андреевна Дмитриева, , ˈdarʲɪ̯ə ˈdmʲitrʲɪ(ɪ̯)ɪvə; born 22 June 1993) is a Russian rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2012 Olympic all-around silver medalist, the 2010 Worl ...

. In 2013, at the 2013 Miss Valentine Cup in

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...

, Estonia, Yusifova won the bronze medal in hoop and at the 2013 Irina Deleanu Cup she won another bronze medal in hoop. She competed at the 2013 European Championships in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria where she and teammate

Marina Durunda Marina Sergeyevna Durunda (born 12 June 1997) ( az, Marina Sergey qızı Durunda;russian: Марина Сергеевна Дурунда) is a retired Ukrainian-born Azerbaijani individual rhythmic gymnast. Durunda started her senior career in ...

represented Azerbaijan, finishing fourth in the Team event. She qualified to the clubs final and finished 7th at the final. She won the silver medal at the 2013 Azerbaijan National Championships behind champion

. At the 2013 World Cup Final in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Russia, she finished 8th in all-around and qualified for the ball final where she finished 8th. Yusifova tied for 13th place with

Jana Berezko-Marggrander Jana Berezko-Marggrander (russian: Яна Березко-Маргграндер, born 17 October 1995 in Tolyatti, Samara Oblast, Russia) is a German retired individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2010 Youth Olympic all-around bronze medalist. ...

in the All-around at the 2013 World Championships. She competed at the 2013 Grand Prix Brno and finished 9th in the all-around. She competed at the 2013 Grand Prix Final in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and finished 6th in all-around. She qualified to four event finals and won bronze in clubs. At the 2013 Aeon Cup in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, Yusifova finished 5th in Team event and 6th in the All-around finals. In 2014, Yusifova missed competing in the early season due to shoulder injury. In April, Yusifova returned to competition at the 2014 Azerbaijan National Championships where she won the all-around silver medal behind reigning national champion Marina Durunda. Yusifova competed in her first event internationally at the 2014 Corbeil-Essonnes World Cup and finished 16th in all-around. She qualified to 1 event final and finished 6th in ball. Shortly after her brief return, Yusifova announced her retirement on September 3.

Routine music information

References

External links

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Rhythmic Gymnastics Results
1996 births Living people Azerbaijani rhythmic gymnasts Sportspeople from Baku {{rhythmic-gymnastics-bio-stub