Turkmen athletes won one gold, one silver, and four bronze medals at the 3 Asian youth games, which took place over 10 days in Bahrain.
The Asian youth games are a multi-sport competition organised by the Olympic council of Asia (OCA) for athletes aged 14-18. The first edition was held in Singapore in 2009, and the second in Nanjing (China), in 2013. The next edition was scheduled to take place first in Hambantota (Sri Lanka), in 2017, and then in Shantou (China), in 2021. However, the OCA cancelled the first edition due to political interference by the Sri Lankan government in the activities of the National olympic committee, and the second due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Asian youth games, which resumed after 12 years, brought together 4092 athletes from 45 countries in Bahrain, who competed for 264 sets of medals in 26 sports (29 disciplines).
Turkmenistan was represented at these Games by a sports delegation of 62 people, 38 of whom were athletes competing in eight sports: 3x3 basketball, boxing, freestyle wrestling, kurash wrestling, athletics, swimming, Thai boxing and weightlifting.
Leyli Yusupova, a 10th grader from Turkmenabat secondary specialised school № 21, opened medal count of our team by winning bronze in kurash. The Lebap wrestling school alumnus achieved this feat in the 52 kg weight class, a competition in which nine athletes competed for the medal.
In her first bout at the quarterfinal stage, L. Yusupova won against Chen Yung-ya from Chinese Taipei, and then in the semi-finals she lost to the future champion Mubinabonu Karimova from Uzbekistan, ultimately rising to third place on the podium. The winner of the second bronze medal in this weight category was Setayesh Jalaleddin (Iran), who lost in the other semi-final to Kanishka Bidhur (India), who became the silver medallist.
The remaining five medals for the Turkmenistan team were won by weightlifters, among whom Didarbek Jumabayev, a 12th grade student at the «Olimp» secondary sports school, deserves special mention. In the 79 kg weight class, he won bronze in the snatch (138 kg), finishing 4 kg behind silver medallist Adrian Bonilla of Bahrain. And in the clean and jerk (177 kg) he won the gold medal, setting youth records for Asia and the Asian Games in this exercise. Nurzhan Dzhumabay of Kazakhstan, who won gold in the snatch (146 kg), won silver in the clean and jerk (176 kg). And the bronze went to the chinese Xiao Ao (172 kg).
Ysmayyl Akmyradov, a 12th grade student at Mary secondary school № 35, also brought two medals to collection of our team, winning a bronze medal in the snatch (146 kg) and a silver medal in the clean and jerk (185 kg) in the 94 kg weight category.
The final sixth medal for the Turkmenistan national team was won by Saparbay Atajanov, a 12th grade student from secondary school № 95 in the Akdepe etrap of the Dashoguz velayat, who won bronze in the clean and jerk (175 kg) in the over 94 kg weight category.
Kakamyrat Annamyradov (up to 71 kg), Ogulshat Amanova (up to 53 kg) and Asal Kerimbayeva (up to 77 kg) finished their performances one-step away from a medal in the snatch and clean and jerk, taking 4th place in their weight categories.
In the medal standings of the weightlifting tournament, the Turkmenistan team, consisting of 10 weightlifters, shared 8th - 9th places with the Vietnamese team.
This was the third time Turkmen athletes competed in the Asian youth games. At the previous two, our compatriots failed to win medals. At the current Games in Bahrain, athletes of Turkmenistan won one gold, one silver, and four bronze medals, finishing 27th overall among all participating teams.
turkmenistan.gov.tm
