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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.

Sports Construction

Kyrgyz Football Gets Boost as Construction Starts on New Stadium

Kyrgyzstan is building a 45,000-seat stadium designed to host Asian Football Confederation finals as well as FIFA group matches. This week, President Sadyr Japarov announced that construction on the new stadium near Bishkek had begun and would take two years. Local and Turkish architects and engineers are involved, and there are also several advisers from Britain, he said. The shape of the stadium will aim to evoke a yurt, a circular tent that was a staple of nomadic life in Central Asia for millennia. Last year, FIFA President Gianni Infantino urged Kyrgyzstan to build a new football stadium to help develop the sport there. Kyrgyzstan’s national team does not have its own dedicated stadium. Currently, it plays matches at the Dolen Omurzakov Stadium in Bishkek. The facility, which can hold about 23,000 spectators, is also used by two local clubs.

Nationality Sports

Kazakh Tennis: Foreign-Born Talent and Grassroots Programs

ALMATY, Kazakhstan - Elena Rybakina, a Moscow-born citizen of Kazakhstan, considers her run to the final of the Miami Open this past weekend to be a success. Kazakhstan’s tennis federation duly noted the achievement, but what it really wants to see is more homegrown talent making a splash in global tennis. “It was a great two weeks. A lot of tough matches, great battles,” said 24-year-old Rybakina, who won five matches on her way to the final, where she lost to American Danielle Collins. Rybakina, the world No. 4, won Wimbledon in 2022 and was runner-up at the Australian Open last year. Rybakina played at Spartak Club in Moscow as a junior but secured citizenship in Kazakhstan in 2017 after the tennis federation there offered generous support for her career. Her Wimbledon victory came in a year when players from Russia and Belarus were barred from participating because of international tension over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Rybakina’s Wimbledon triumph was met with a “mixed reaction” by some observers who wondered about the state of grassroots tennis in Kazakhstan, said Yuriy Polskiy, vice president of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation and president of the Asian Tennis Federation. Polskiy wrote in an article published in Euronewsweek in February that 10 Kazakhstanis finished the 2023 season in the top 100. While some players competing for Kazakhstan were born outside the country, all the players in the junior rankings were born and trained in Kazakhstan, he said. Top talents include Amir Omarkhanov, who this year was the first Kazakh player to reach the Australian Open Junior Championship quarterfinals. On the women’s side, Asylzhan Arystanbekova reached the quarterfinals at the junior doubles tournament in Melbourne this year. Bulat Utemuratov, president of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation, has led development of national tennis, spending big sums since he became head of the federation in 2007. Today, players who are 14-16 years old have been training for about a decade and there are 48 modern tennis facilities with 360 courts, most of them indoors, according to tennis officials. The cost of court rentals has plunged and the number of children playing tennis has soared in Kazakhstan. “They are the ones who will represent Kazakhstan at professional tournaments in the future, and the country won’t have to bring players from elsewhere,” Polskiy wrote. For now, Rybakina and Alexander Bublik, another Russia-born player who changed citizenship and is ranked No. 18 in the world, are the biggest names in Kazakh tennis.

Sports

EBRD and Shinhan Bank Upgrade Almaty’s Atakent Conference Hub

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Shinhan Bank Kazakhstan are financing an ambitious upgrade of the Atakent Business Cooperation Centre in Almaty, to help Central Asia’s leading conference hub build world-class sports facilities. The EBRD on February 19th announced it will share half of the risk of a KZT 3bn ($6.6m) loan provided by SBK, a fully owned subsidiary of Shinhan Bank Korea, to Atakent under the risk-sharing agreement between the two banks. The first risk-sharing transaction between the EBRD and SBK will finance the construction of a new sports and health facility, which will allow the Atakent hub to host national and international sports events. The new sports complex will have a modern gym, various indoor and outdoor training facilities, two 25-metre swimming pools, and world-class arenas for a broad range of sport activities. The new facility will be open to professional athletes and the general public. The building – the construction of which is being supported by a $172,200 grant under the EBRD’s Resource Efficiency Transformation Program, funded by the Global Environment Facility Special Fund – will meet class A international energy efficiency standards. The grant will help introduce energy-efficient solutions, including LED lighting, insulation, and modern heating and cooling equipment.