Turkmenistan's athletes arrived in Harbin, China, for the 9th Asian Winter Games, which will be held from February 7 to 14. The delegation traveled from Ashgabat via Beijing, the Turkmenistan: Golden age electronic newspaper reports.
The Asian Winter Games is a multi-sport event held every four years for member countries of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA). The first Games took place in 1986 in Sapporo, Japan. At that time, 293 athletes from seven countries competed in the Games.
The upcoming Games in China are expected to gather a record number of athletes – 1,275 (755 men and 520 women) from 34 countries – competing for 64 medal sets across 11 sports.
Turkmenistan, where the state pays great attention to the development of sports, is sending a delegation to the Asian Winter Games for the second time. The team consists of 37 members, including 25 athletes. Our athletes will compete in three sports: ice hockey and – for the first time – short track speed skating and figure skating.
Making his debut for Turkmenistan in short track speed skating is Pena Atayev, a gold medalist in the international youth tournament over a 500-meter distance at South Korea's "Dream Program" training initiative in Pyeongchang in 2015. In women's singles figure skating, Turkmenistan will be represented by two-time national champion Larisa Vakhitova and Ayna Ekaeva. Ekaeva is a student at Turkmen State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports and has previously competed at events such as the 1st Winter Children of Asia International Sports Games in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (2019), the Bosphorus Cup in Turkey, and an international tournament in the UAE.
In men's ice hockey tournament at the Asian Games – set to begin four days before the official opening ceremony –14 teams will compete. The teams are divided into three groups: Group A: China, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Thailand, Chinese Taipei; Group B: Bahrain, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Singapore; Group C: Hong Kong, China, India, Macau, China, Turkmenistan.
The winners of Groups B and C will face each other to determine who advances to the quarterfinals as either the 7th or 8th seed. The remaining teams from these groups will compete for rankings between 9th and 14th place through playoff matches.
