St. Petersburg, November 25, 2014. Dagestani Rassul Nazirs won a gold medal of the international table tennis tournament "Peter I Cup» for persons with spinal cord injury taking place November 19-24 in St. Petersburg, athlete’s coach Konstantin Avanesov told RIA "Dagestan". The tournament brought together more than 80 participants from different Russia regions and a few foreign countries.

"The next sports season will be a decisive one. The results of a number of international competitions will determine the expanded list of our national table tennis team including athletes ready to perform at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Rassul Nazirov who yesterday won the largest Russian table tennis tournament for persons with spinal cord injury has a good chance to go to the Paralympics. The good dynamics of his latest results at different tournaments speaks for the fact. We pin great hopes on Nazirov," coach of Russian national teams Igor Sazonov commented in a telephone conversation with the RIA" Dagestan".

Nazirov’s prospect of going to Brazilian Paralympic Games actually depends on his performance in all mandatory qualifying international competitions for two years ahead of the Games.

Interestingly, at the end of 1024, Rassul Nazirov will be the first Dagestani wheelchair athlete ever to be awarded the Master of Sports of Russia.