Turkmen athletes won one gold, one silver, and four bronze medals at the 3rd Asian Youth Games, which took place over 10 days in Bahrain, The Golden age electronic newspaper reports.
The Asian Youth Games are a multi-sport competition organized 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 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 specialized 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.
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 medalist 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 Zhumabay 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).
Yslam 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 district of the Dashoguz region, who won bronze in the clean and jerk (175 kg) in the over 94 kg weight category.
