Career
He competes in the 100 meters and 200 meters events. He competed at the 2009 European Athletics Junior Championships, winning a silver medal in the 100 m and a gold medal in the 200 m. He holds the national and national junior records in both events.
He is also the 200 m European junior record holder and national junior record holder in the 60 metres.
His 200 m time is the second fastest by a junior athlete, after Usain Bolt"s 19.93 secretary He is the 2nd fastest junior in the 200m of all time after Usain Bolt.
He represented Azerbaijan but switched allegiance to Turkey in 2011, including allegations that he had received up to $200,000 to change his citizenship. In Guliyev"s defence, his Turkish coach Fikret Çetinkaya stated that the sprinter had had no money incentive and had simply not been "given enough attention" in his home country, thus moving to Turkey voluntarily.
The defection was deeply unpopular with the Azerbaijan Athletics Federation, which set about filing an official complaint to the International Association of Athletics Federations – a move which would effectively rule out Guliyev from major international competition for three years.
In April 2011, the IAAF enacted a transfer delay in line with its international rules, banning Guliyev to represent any country other than Azerbaijan until April 2014. The runner highlighted the training and financial support he received in Turkey was significant and argued that language and culture was similar between the two countries. Despite the ban, his home federation remained open to him representing Azerbaijan internationally again.
Following negotiations with the Azerbaijani Ministry of Youth and Sports, Guliyev confirmed his original decision not to compete for Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan"s Minister of Youth and Sports Azad Rahimov explained this by Guliyev"s putting forward too unreasonable financial demands for a young athlete and expressed doubt that Guliyev"s representation of Turkey in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games would be successful. On September 8, 2015, he ran the 200 metres race, part of the Hanžeković Memorial in Zagreb timed in 19.88.
At the time that ranked him tied for the 34th best performer of all time and #6 for 2015. He was trained by his father Eldar Guliyev until his death from heart attack in June 2010.
