ASTANA – Fifty-five of Kazakhstan’s strongest athletes have been chosen to compete in the 26th Winter Universiade December 11 – 21 in Trentino, Italy.
The event is expected to draw more than 3,500 athletes from 60 countries to compete in biathlon, skiing, curling, speed and figure skating, jumping race, skiing race, snowboarding, freestyle, short track and hockey.
Kazakhstan will be represented in seven sports. In figure skating, Denis Ten and Abzal Rakimgaliyev will take to the ice to fight for gold. Skiers Evgenyi Velichko, Gennadyi Matvienko and the Malyshev brothers, Alexey and Sergey, will represent the men’s team. Teammates Marina Matrosova and Victoria Lanchikova are the female part of the national ski team.
Kazakhstan’s ice hockey team headed by the successful coach of Kaztsink-Torpedo Vladimir Pluchev will compete in group C. Forwards Evgenyi Rymarev, Alexander Shin, Alexander Kaznacheev, Konstantin Savenkov and goalkeeper Andrey Yankov and their teammates will compete against teams from Canada, Japan and Ukraine. The A group will be represented by teams from Italy, the United States, Sweden and Latvia. Hockey players from Russia, Slovakia, Great Britain and Czechia are going to compete in group B.
The Italy Universiade is considered by many athletes as a warm-up event for the upcoming Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
