ASTANA – President of Kazakhstan’s National Sports Association Islambek Salzhanov received a certificate of official membership from World Ethnosport Confederation President Necmeddin Bilal Erdoğan at the sixth International Ethnosport Forum in Antalya, Türkiye, held from Feb. 16 to 18, reported the association’s press office.
Islambek Salzhanov receives a certificate of official membership from Necmeddin Bilal Erdoğan. Photo credit: Egemen Qazaqstan
Erdoğan extended his best wishes for holding the upcoming World Nomad Games in Astana, which will undoubtedly give impetus to the further consolidation and development of ethnic sports globally.
The World Ethnosport Confederation also signed a memorandum of understanding with national associations for traditional sports, aiming to formulate standardized confederation regulations for traditional sports and games.
According to Salzhanov, half of the national federations included in the association have received international status or joined existing international organizations.
“This indicates that Kazakhstan’s national sports are reaching a new level of development and are becoming increasingly popular,” he said.
Indeed, the number of Kazakh citizens involved in national sports grows yearly.
The association proposed several measures to bring all regulations and procedures for ethnic sports development following international standards.
These include standardizing the main sports program of the World Nomad Games, drafting a unified calendar for international competitions, and organizing specialized referee training courses in collaboration with the World Ethnosport Confederation for the forthcoming fifth World Nomad Games, among others.
The forum also featured a presentation of the games, scheduled for Sept. 8-14 in Astana, for participants from over 60 countries.
The event concluded with the conferral of the fifth international prize in traditional sports. Among the awardees from Kazakhstan were Professor Yelemes Alimkhanov from the Department of Physical Education and Sports at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in the academic category and Kazakh Kures (wrestling) athlete Zarina Saripova in the sports category.
