Sports - The Times Of Central Asia

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The World Nomad Games: Capturing a Sense of the Great Steppe

The 5th World Nomad Games, set to be hosted in Astana from September 8-13, is Central Asia's largest national sports competition and, complemented by unique cultural and scientific programs, attracts participants and spectators from throughout the world. As reported by TCA, there is a distinctive festive fizz in the air as the city prepares to welcome visitors, with streets, shopping centers, public spaces and even buses already festooned with flags and colorful decorations. Ablai Kondybaev, the Deputy Head of the Directorate responsible for preparing and organizing the 5th World Nomad Games, spoke to The Times of Central Asia about how the event allows visitors to experience the spirit of the Great Steppe. TCA: The geographical scope of the Nomad Games is steadily expanding worldwide. How many countries will participate this year and how many tourists and spectators are expected to attend? AK: The Games have a ten-year history. Having originated in Kyrgyzstan in 2014, they have since been held three times in the Kyrgyz city of Cholpon-Ata and on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul. Over the relatively short period since it began, the event has grown dramatically. The first Games attracted participants from 19 countries mainly from Central Asia where there is a historic nomadic culture, whereas the 4th Nomad Games hosted by Iznik, Turkey, in 2022, saw athletes competing from 81 countries. It's very interesting to track the geography of engagement. In previous Games, for example, countries such as New Zealand and Madagascar participated. Superficially, they have nothing to do with nomadic culture, yet consider themselves descendants of nomads. Such things bring us closer together; in the distant past, all humanity was nomadic. To date, we have received applications for participation from 89 countries to compete in this year's event. The Nomadic Games are a new and interesting phenomenon, offering unique and highly engaging spectacular sports, unfamiliar and exotic to European and Western audiences. As such, the Games are becoming increasingly popular abroad. Today's geographical representation of athletes is expansive, with countries including Venezuela, Ireland, Gambia, and Brunei participating for the first time. For ten years, countries from literally all continents have joined the event and perhaps in the future, we will reach a point where interest in our national sports is on a par with the Olympics or soccer championships. [caption id="attachment_21887" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] Falconry in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan; image: Stephen M. Bland[/caption] TCA: Is it significant that the month of September was chosen for the Games? AK: Absolutely. September is when nomads traditionally celebrate the completion of the migration with their caravan of yurts and animals from their summer to winter camp with a toi ; an event comprising feasts, rituals, games and competitions. TCA: Which competitions generate the most excitement amongst spectators: Horse racing, archery, wrestling? AK: Nomadic life is directly related to horses, and year on year we observe how people who know nothing about steppe culture are particularly fascinated by our equestrian sports. Always spectacular and challenging, they take the audience's breath away. But...

Sports Boxing

A Guy From the Bronx and His Contribution to Uzbekistan’s Boxing Gold

Uzbekistan’s five gold medals in boxing at the Paris games owe something to Sidney Jackson, an accomplished boxer from a poor Jewish family in the Bronx, New York City, who is credited with introducing the sport to Central Asia in the early 1920s. That’s the view of Uzbekistan’s ambassador to the United States, Furqat Sidiqov, and other people in Uzbekistan who know about the country’s evolution as an Olympic boxing power. “This remarkable success is tied to Sidney Jackson, founder of Uzbekistan’s boxing school,” Sidiqov said on the X platform. He said Jackson’s legacy is still shaping champions today and urged people to watch a documentary about the American that was released in 2022 with the backing of the Uzbek government. Jackson, a beloved figure in Uzbekistan who died in Tashkent in 1966, started boxing when he was a boy, won featherweight titles in the United States and joined a boxing tour in Europe just before World War I. He dropped out of the tour because of an injury, traveled to Russia and then diverted to Tashkent when fighting erupted in Europe. Short of money, he stayed there, found a job, joined an international brigade that fought in the civil conflict sweeping Central Asia and the Caucasus after the Russian Revolution, and opened a threadbare boxing club in Tashkent after the war ended. [caption id="attachment_21805" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Sketch of Sidney Jackson by Rifkat Azihanov[/caption] Over the years, he trained Russian and Central Asian boxers who had international success as representatives of the Soviet Union. Jackson laid foundations for athletes including Russian middleweight boxer Valeri Popenchenko, who won gold at the Olympics in Tokyo in 1964, and Rufat Riskiyev, an Uzbek middleweight boxer who won silver at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. Uzbekistan’s boxing federation was founded in 1928, and Jackson served as its chairman for more than 20 years. The history of boxing in Uzbekistan is “inextricably linked” with Jackson, according to Uzbek boxing officials. “To call Sidney Jackson the grandfather of boxing in Uzbekistan is accurate, but still undersells his impact on the sport,” the asianboxing.info website said in 2020. “And whilst it may have been more than 50 years since he died, his impact is still felt there, and always will be for any Uzbek stepping between the ropes.”

olimpic games Finance Social Sports

Central Asia’s Olympic Performance: A Regional Overview

On their return home from the Olympic Games in Paris, the Times of Central Asia reported a sense of regional unity as athletes from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan celebrated each other's victories. Uzbekistan won 13 medals, including eight golds, two silvers, and three bronzes, placing it top amongst Central Asian countries, and in 13th place of the 206 countries on the medals table . The National Olympic Committee of Uzbekistan announced that the equivalent of $5,804,108 had been allocated in the first three months of this year to prepare for the Paris-2024 Olympic Games. Rewards for its medalists were also generous. Gold medalists were awarded $200,000, Chevrolet Tahoes, and two-story cottages, while their coaches received $50,000 each. The silver and bronze medalists received cash prizes of $100,000 and $50,000, respectively, along with BYD Song Plus cars and apartments as a “President’s Gift", whilst their coaches received $25,000 for silver, and $12,500, for bronze. According to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the equivalent of $13,551,603 was invested in preparing the national team for the Olympics. Kazakh Olympic champions received $250,000 for gold, $150,000 for silver, and $75,000 for bronze, and with one gold, three silver, and three bronze, Kazakhstan finished 43rd overall. Kyrgyzstan allocated $3,220,140 for training its athletes and awarded silver medal winners with $83,000, and bronze medal winners with $60,000. Bringing home two silver and four bronze medals, the Kyrgyz national team was placed 68th overall. With three bronze medals, for which each athlete received $4,500, Tajikistan took 79th place. Unfortunately, despite the participation of six athletes, Turkmenistan failed to win any medals. Details concerning funding for the Tajikistan and Turkmenistan’s teams have not been disclosed.

Sports

Mark Cavendish, British Cyclist from Astana Qazaqstan Team, Takes Record Stage Win

British cyclist Mark Cavendish made history at this year’s Tour de France, which he was said was probably his last race. Cavendish, currently riding for the Astana Qazaqstan Team, set the record for winning the most career stages (35) at cycling’s biggest event. The tour ended Sunday with Slovenian Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates as the overall winner. But Cavendish’s record-breaking performance was one of the main story lines of the 2024 Tour de France, which broke with tradition and ended in Nice because the usual finishing area, in or near Paris, is preparing for the Olympics (July 26-Aug. 11). In 2021, Cavendish drew level with Belgian Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 stage wins at the Tour de France, but another win eluded him in the following years. He signed up with Astana Qazaqstan for 2023, but dropped out of that year’s Tour de France after a fall. On the verge of retirement, he stayed with Astana Qazaqstan for another try at breaking the record. On July 3, it happened when he won the fifth stage of the Tour de France. “It’s hard to fully grasp this success, but we worked towards it, and as a team, we did everything possible to make it happen,” 39-year-old Cavendish said. “Few believed that we would succeed, that Mark’s arrival in Astana Qazaqstan Team would change history, but we believed and did everything to make today’s victory happen,” said Alexandr Vinokurov, general manager of the team. “We were close to this last year, but fate had other plans. I believe that real champions should not end their careers after a fall and injury, and I am happy that Mark decided to do another season in the end.” Cavendish won his first Tour de France stage in 2008. Merckx, a five-time winner of the Tour de France, retired from racing in 1978. This month, Chinese company XDS, one of the world’s biggest bicycle makers, said it will invest in the Astana Qazaqstan Team for at least five years, according to a team statement.

Tour de France Cycling Sports Culture

Astana Qazaqhstan Team’s Stellar Rise from the Ashes

On July 4, the official website of the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan announced that Astana Qazaqstan Team member, Mark Cavendish, won the fifth stage of the Tour de France. Winning the Tour for the 35th time, Cavendish surpassed the previous record set by Eddy Merckx and demonstrating the management's rise from recent troubles, his victory revived his team's former glory. Two names Alexander Vinokurov and Danial Akhmetov are the two cyclists who first turned the spotlight on the Astana Qazaqstan Team. In May 2006, "Operation Puerto", the code name of the Spanish police investigation into the doping system in cycling, led by Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, resulted in a series of searches and arrests involving numerous cyclists. The implication of the Spanish team Liberty Seguros-Würth, of which Kazakh cyclists Alexander Vinokurov and Andrey Kashechkin were key members, led to its sponsors' withdrawal. Vinokurov sought assistance from the then Prime Minister and head of the Cycling Federation of Kazakhstan, Danial Akhmetov. With support from the latter, the Astana team was established that year and Vinokurov celebrated by winning the Vuelta a España, with Kashechkin finishing third. Scandals, intrigues, investigations The first scandal broke out immediately. When the owner of the ProTour license, which belonged to Liberty Seguros-Würth, refused to sell it to Astana, the team submitted an application to the International Cycling Union. The initial response from the IUW was that it could not guarantee the license until the 2007 Tour. Meanwhile, organizers assured Astana that it would be allowed to participate in major international competitions and on December 20, 2006, the team was granted a four-year license. In July 2007, a doping scandal broke at the Tour de France, at the centre of which, was Astana's team leader , Alexander Vinokurov. A test performed after his winning a stage of the classic race showed the presence of different types of red cells in his blood, indicative of a blood transfusion prior to competing, and Vinokourov was disqualified for two years. Andrei Kashechkin was similarly caught and during the second season, two more Astana athletes, suspected of doping, were likewise suspended from racing. All these troubles led to the Kazakh team's absence from the 2008 Tour de France season in the Giro d'I and other Grand Tours. By then, the team was under the direction of Johan Brunel renowned for bringing on winner of the Tour de France, Alberto Contador, and many other strong riders. Both Johan Brunel and Alexander Vinokurov were connected with the doping scandal that followed in 2009. As soon as his disqualification period had expired the famous rider intended to return to "Astana triumphantly." Brunel invited American cyclist Lance Armstrong to Astana to pair with Contador. He persistently objected, however, to the contract with Vinokurov and Kashechkin. Ultimately, he left the team, unable to withstand the confrontation with the famous Kazakh. Armstrong and most of the team went after him, and Contador's contract was delayed for another year. The outcome of the scandals forced...

Sports

Kazakh Chess Player Wins World Junior Title in India

Kazybek Nogerbek of Kazakhstan has become the FIDE world junior chess champion, winning the title in Gandhinagar, India even though he was only the ninth seed. An emotional Nogerbek, 20, briefly rested his head on his forearm on the table on Thursday after the tournament victory. “It feels very good,” said Nogerbek, who won the rapid and blitz titles in the World Youth U18 Championship. The Kazakh player is an international master (IM), which is the second most difficult title to secure after grandmaster (GM). A number of grandmasters were among those participating in the U20 World Junior Chess Championship, which started at the beginning of June. Divya Deshmukh, the 18-year-old top seed from India, won the girls’ section. Nogerbek’s victory was tight. He scored 8.5/11 points, as did grandmaster Emin Ohanyan of Armenia. But Nogerbek did better under a tiebreak system designed to determine a winner in such a scenario. Grandmaster Kuja Budisavljevic of Serbia won bronze with eight points. “Going into the final round, GM Mamikon Gharibyan from Armenia was in sole lead with eight points, half a point ahead of four players, including Nogerbek,” chess.com reported. “The two faced in the final round, with the Armenian making a crucial mistake in time trouble, while trying to defend a difficult ending.” Chess.com said the world junior championship has a prestigious history but fewer top players are participating because “more attractive tournaments” are available. FIDE is the International Chess Federation, which is the translated name of Federation International des Echecs, founded in Paris in 1924.