ASTANA – With 41 medals, Kazakhstan is currently in 11th place at the 18th Asian Games, taking place Aug. 18-Sept. 2 in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia. At the end of day eight, the country’s athletes have collected five gold, eight silver and 28 bronze medals.
Photo credit: oleantimesherald.com.
Fencer Dmitriy Alexanin brought Kazakhstan its first gold, beating current Olympic champion Park Sang-young of South Korea Aug. 19 in the men’s epee individual final.
Cyclist Alexey Lutsenko grabbed the country’s second gold medal four days later in the individual men’s cycling road race. He completed the 145.5-kilometre course in three hours, 25 minutes, 25 seconds. Athletes from Japan and Thailand captured silver and bronze, respectively.
Lutsenko earned his second gold Aug. 24 in the men’s 40-kilometre individual time trial, advancing past Uzbek and Japanese athletes.
“I congratulate our team with the gold medal. I am happy to bring the second gold medal from cycling. I wish good luck to all athletes in the 2018 Asian games. Go Kazakhstan! ” he said.
Taekwondo fighter Cansel Deniz, the men’s doubles tennis team of Aleksander Bublik and Denis Yevseyev and Kazakh women’s water polo team took silver. Similar medals were presented to wrestlers Zhuldyz Eshimova (women’s 53-kg freestyle), Daniyar Kaisanov (men’s 74-kg freestyle), Almat Kebispayev (men’s 67-kg Greco-Roman) and Nurmakhan Tinaliyev (men’s 130-kg Greco-Roman).
Ju-jitsu is making its first appearance at the Games, and athletes Darkhan Nortayev and Ruslan Israilov took gold medals.
Darkhan Nortayev (newaza men’s 62-kg) grabbed the country’s gold medal, beating an athlete from the United Arab Emirates in a decisive match Aug. 25. Ruslan Israilov (newaza men’s 77-kg) also took gold, defeating a Kyrgyz athlete in the final Aug. 26.
Kazakh ju-jitsu fighters Nartay Kazhekov, Nurzhan Seiduali and Rizat Makhashev brought Kazakhstan bronze medals.
The 2018 Asian Games join 10,000 athletes from 45 national Olympic committees competing in 40 sports. The Kazakh national team is represented by 440 athletes, 404 of whom will vie for medals in 25 Olympic sports in 37 disciplines.
