Marina Durunda

Marina Sergeyevna Durunda (born 12 June 1997) (Marina Sergey qızı Durunda; Марина Сергеевна Дурунда) is a retired Ukrainian-born Azerbaijani individual rhythmic gymnast.

Durunda began practicing rhythmic gymnastics in 2001 at age four in Sevastopol.

At age six, she and her family moved to Cyprus, where for seven years until 2012 she was the national champion and won all competitions of Cyprus.

Unable to receive a Cypriot passport, she accepted an invitation to compete for Azerbaijan from the Azeri National Gymnastics Team Federation.

As a junior, Durunda competed with the Azeri team at the 2012 European Championships and qualified for the ball final finishing 7th.

She competed at the 2012 Aeon Cup in Japan finishing 3rd in all-around at the juniors event.

Durunda started her senior career in 2013, and soon became the leader of the Azerbaijani gymnastics and a three-time (2013-2015) national champion.

Durunda made her senior debut at the 2013 Miss Valentine Cup in Tartu, Estonia where she won the bronze medal in all-around behind Ukrainian champion Ganna Rizatdinova and silver medalist Melitina Staniouta.

She also won bronze in the ball, clubs and ribbon final.

Durunda won gold in All-around at the 2013 Baltic Hoop.

At the 2013 Pesaro World Cup, Durunda qualified for all four event finals, she finished 5th in ribbon.

Durunda finished 6th in all-around at the 2013 Sofia World Cup and qualified for all four event finals.

She again finished 6th in all-around at the 2013 Minsk World Cup.

Durunda competed at her first Senior Europeans at the 2013 European Championships in Vienna, Austria.

She and teammate Lala Yusifova represented Azerbaijan where they finished 4th in Team event.

She qualified for three apparatus in the finals and finished 5th in ball, hoop and ribbon.

She won her first senior national title at the 2013 Azerbaijan National Championships.

At the 2013 World Cup Final in St.Petersburg, Russia, she finished 6th in all-around and again qualified to all 4 event finals.

Durunda competed at the 2013 World Championships in Kyiv, Ukraine where she qualified and finished 5th in ribbon final.

Durunda finished 16th at the 2013 World Championships All-around final behind Belarusian Katsiaryna Halkina.

In October, she competed at the 2013 Grand Prix Brno finishing 6th in the all-around and qualified to four event finals.

On October 25–27, Durunda competed at the World Club Championship, the 2013 Aeon Cup in Tokyo, Japan representing team Neftchi (together with teammate Lala Yusifova) finishing 5th in Team event.

She finished 6th in the All-around finals behind Belarusian Katsiaryna Halkina.

In 2014 Season, Durunda competed at the 2014 Miss Valentine Cup and won the all-around gold medal.

She withdrew after suffering an injury at the 2014 Moscow Grand Prix qualifications.

Durunda returned to competition in the first World Cup event of the season at the 2014 Debrecen World Cup where she finished 6th in the all-around and won gold in hoop.

She finished 5th in all-around at the 2014 Stuttgart World Cup and qualified to all 4 event finals.

Durunda then competed at the 2014 Holon Grand Prix where she finished 8th in all-around and qualified to 2 event finals.

Durunda finished 4th in all-around at the 2014 Lisboa World Cup and won bronze in ball final.

She then followed her next event at the 2014 Pesaro World Cup, where she finished 6th in all-around and qualified to 4 event finals.

Durunda won her second National all-around title at the 2014 Azerbaijan Championships held in Baku.

On May 22–24, Durunda competed at the 2014 Tashkent World Cup where she finished 6th in all-around behind Melitina Staniouta.

She qualified to all 4 event finals and won bronze medal in ribbon and clubs (tied with Elizaveta Nazarenkova).

She then competed at the 2014 Minsk World Cup finishing 7th in all-around, she qualified to 3 event finals and won bronze medal in hoop.

On June 10–15, Durunda competed at the 2014 European Championships and finished 6th in all-around behind Margarita Mamun.

On August 8–10, Durunda competed at the 2014 Sofia World Cup finishing 10th in all-around and 7th in ball finals.

On September 22–28, Durunda (together with teammates Nilufar Niftaliyeva and Gulsum Shafizada) competed at the 2014 World Championships where Team Azerbaijan finished 5th.

she qualified to 3 event finals, placing (6th in hoop, 7th in ball, 5th in clubs) and finished 6th in the all-around finals ahead of Melitina Staniouta of Belarus.

She won a bronze medal at the 2015 European Championship in Minsk, and a silver medal at the inaugural 2015 European Games in Baku.

Marina represented Azerbaijan at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, and finished 9th in the all-around final.