The date of the celebration on Monday (March 5) was specifically chosen to align with when the former President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, met with medallists from World and European Championships at Baku Sports Palace on March 5, 1995.

That day saw Aliyev establish the country's sports foundation, which launched a new strategy to help develop Azeri physical culture and sports.

This programme has been widely praised for helping the Azerbaijani capital Baku secure the rights to host the first-ever European Games in 2015, an event granted to them by the European Olympic Committees (EOC) General Assembly in 2012.

Baku has also played host to the 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games as well as a host of other major events.

The day of sport and physical culture is one of a number of Government initiatives, which also include the setting up of new Olympic sport centres to contribute to development and raise awareness of Olympic values across the country.

The EOC claim that sport in Azerbaijan is growing rapidly, leading to the promotion of a healthy and active lifestyle among young people in the country.

It is hoped that by 2020, sports federations, sport clubs and sport schools across the country will be provided with specialised training and athletics facilities.

To reach this end, physical culture and sports organisations will keep working on strengthening logistics whilst the training of personnel will be further improved.

The Azerbaijani National Olympic Committee is headed by the country's President Ilham Aliyev, the son of former President Aliyev.