After two weeks of intense competition in Japan, the Asian Summer Games are due to finally conclude today, with the closing ceremony marking the official end of the event, which has seen some impressive performances by members of the national team.
Improving three places since the last games, the Kazakh team finished in 8th place on the medal table, with 12 gold, 24 silver and 48 bronze, while the overall total of 84 was the fifth-highest haul of any competing nation.
The leading countries are classified by gold medal wins, making China the runaway leader with 169, once again the most successful nation in Asian sport, if not World sport. Japan and South Korea completed the top three.
As for the Kazakhstani athletes, their trip to the Aichi Prefecture is widely seen as a success, after a year of immense sporting improvement for a nation which is investing sensibly in sport at grassroots level, understanding that throwing money at a quick fix is not the way to move forward.
Proving that their approach is likely to bear fruit are several gold medal winners from the recent competition, including two boxers who won the country’s first Asian Games gold medals since 2014. Torekhan Sabyrkhan took the men’s 70kg title, while Aibek Oralbay stood atop the podium after winning the over 90kg category.
Although the fortnight was marred somewhat by the overturning of Yasmina Toxanbayeva’s win, as well as the judging in two boxing semi-finals, which led to an appeal by Kazakhstani officials, there was a lot of good news across a range of sports, too.
Other golds went to cyclists, including Alexey Lutsenko who now has six and stands out as the undisputed best Asian cyclist, joined in winning outright by Rinata Sultanova, who took the individual cycling time trial in style for her own first-ever gold at these games.
Men’s fencers narrowly took top spot too, beating a strong South Korean épée team 43-42, while competitors in other unarmed combat sports emulated them. Golds went to Tamirlan Tleules in taekwondo, Zholaman Bigabyl and Sofya Berultseva in karate. Yerkingali Burkutalin was the strongest in his MMA category, as it featured for the first time in the Asian Games. Kadyrbek Shynbayev also won gold in the same discipline.
A sport close to my own heart (no, not darts), judo, saw Kazakhs win four silvers; Yeldos Smetov returning to the sport after a break, couldn’t quite overcome his Japanese opponent, the same being true of Abiba Abuzhakynova, Adilet Almat, and Azhar Askhat.
Vladislav Yakovlev and Ivan Chernukhin were triumphant in the men’s pair coxless event, rowing to another gold, which, when you add the champions not listed here, plus take the sackful of silvers and bronzes into consideration, and the relative population size of each leading country, it puts Kazakhstani success into perspective even more.
