Mark your calendars: boxers from Central Asia are going for gold in Paris.
On Wednesday, Kazakh boxer Nurbek Oralbay will fight for Olympic gold in the 80-kilogram class final. Then, on Friday, Lazizbek Mullojonov of Uzbekistan will do the same in the 92-kilogram final.
Kazakhstan’s Oralbay, 24, defeated Dominican boxer Christian Pinales in a 3-2 decision on Sunday and will face Oleksandr Khyzhniak of Ukraine in the middleweight final on Aug. 7.
Oralbay’s twin brother, Aibek, is also a boxer. He competed in the 92-kilogram class at this year’s Olympics but lost in the quarterfinals.
“Their father, a former freestyle wrestler, wanted Nurbek and his brother to follow in his footsteps,” olympics.com reported. “But money was tight at home and boxing coach Askar Yerkebayev (KAZ) offered to train the boys in boxing for free, saying he had a dream to take twins to the world championships – and their father agreed.”
The Olympics Games website also reported that Nurbek once pretended to be Aibek in a bout because Aibek was ill. It didn’t offer more details on that subterfuge.
Meanwhile, Uzbekistan’s Mullojonov is up against Loren Alfonso of Azerbaijan in the Aug. 9 heavyweight final. Mullojonov, 25, defeated Tajikistan’s Davlat Boltaev in the semifinal on Sunday, and the Tajik boxer gets a bronze medal.
Mullojonov, who comes from Uzbekistan’s Ferghana region, was a super heavyweight gold medalist at the 2022 Asian Championships.
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They call him “The Big Uzbek.”
Another Central Asian boxer to watch in Paris this week is Uzbekistan’s Bakhodir Jalolov, who competes against Nelvie Raman Tiafack of Germany in a semifinal of the 92-kilogram-plus class on Aug. 7.
Jalolov, 30, is a defending champion. He was the super heavyweight champion at the Tokyo games in 2021. He has said he wants to become a professional boxer.
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Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakhstan brought home silver in the men’s pommel horse, the first Olympic medal in gymnastics for the Central Asian country.
“20 years of hard work, 35 seconds on the Olympic podium. And now – History!” Kurbanov, 26, said on Instagram.
Kurbanov scored 15.433 on Saturday, just falling short of Ireland’s Rhys McClenaghan, whose score of 15.533 propelled him to gold.
The road to Olympic success has indeed been arduous for Kurbanov, whose father got him into the sport when he was a young boy.
“I had no other choice. My father is a gymnastics coach. He brought me into the gym literally from the cradle. At first, I just ran there, jumped, fooled around. But at the age of five my dad began to train me professionally,” Kurbanov said, according to the International Gymnastics Federation.
Kurbanov had failed to qualify as an apparatus specialist for the last Olympic Games in Tokyo.
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Veteran sprinter Valentina Meredova of Turkmenistan has competed in Paris, 16 years after making her Olympic debut in Beijing.
The 39-year-old ran a 12:01 in the preliminary round of the 100 meters on Friday, finishing fourth in her group and advancing to the next round. Later in the day, she ran a season best of 11.95 but didn’t qualify for the semifinals.
There was anguish in Meredova’s preliminary round when another runner, Lucia Moris of South Sudan, collapsed with an injury during the race. Meredova was among those who tried to comfort Moris before medics arrived to help.
