Today, Azerbaijan has become one of the world's major sports centers. Of course, as well as clubs, secondary and higher education institutions have a great role in the popularization of sports and physical education. One of such educational institutions is Sumgayit State University.

Sumgayit State University achieves great success in the field of sports as well as in education. All conditions have been created in this direction at the university. Thus, purposeful complex measures are taken here in the direction of physical health of students and employees, effective organization of leisure time. The attention and care for sports at the university is reflected in the growing success in the field of sports. Thus, on March 13, in the open championship of AFSO Azerbaijan Fighting  League on Submission held among athletes over 18 years of age dedicated to Novruz holiday in the Palace named after Heydar Aliyev, the 4th course-year student of Physical Education and Pre-service training specialty of SSU faculty of chemistry and biology student Tahir Gurbanov was awarded the order of honor by the president of the AFSO Azerbaijan Fighting  League Asim Ismayilov for the first place.

On March 17, the rector of the university professor Elkhan Huseynov, congratulated our student-athlete who took part in the competition and wished him even greater success in the future. He noted that in accordance with the development strategy implemented under the leadership of president Ilham Aliyev, great success has been achieved in the field of sports in our country. A forward-looking sports policy has formed a healthy generation and a large army of athletes in our country. The attention paid by the state has created conditions for the popularization of sports and the rapid influx of the younger generation in this field. All this is a logical consequence of the sports policy implemented in Azerbaijan, as well as the state's attention and care for the development of sports. The university staff is happy and proud of their achievements.

Tahir Gurbanov was born on December 28, 2000 in the Bolnisi region of Georgia. He has repeatedly won international tournaments and was named the Republican and Baku champion in 2017. In addition, our student, who holds a belt in professional combat, is a first-class sambo athlete, as well as a hand-to-hand fighting  coach.