In the IV Islamic Solidarity Games in the Azerbaijani capital, Merdan Atayev won the silver medal in the 50 meter backstroke event, which he finished in 25.82 seconds. It became a new national record, which exceeds the previous one, set by him during the Asian Championship in Tokyo (Japan) in 2016, by 0.06 seconds. Merdan set another record the day before, having finished in the 100 meter backstroke event in 55.44 seconds, which also secured his place on the second step of the podium. In that sprint swim our compatriot was able to improve the previous result by more than 0.5 seconds. Thus, six medals are in our team’s collection (one gold, three silver and two bronze), which have secured 11th place of the national team of Turkmenistan in the team event among 57 participating countries.