Athletes from Kazakhstan Grab 80 Medals at Asian Games

The Kazakhstani national team claimed 80 medals in the overall medal standings as the 19th Asian Games shut its doors on October 8.

The team, comprising 525 athletes, ranked 11th in the final medal standings, grabbing ten gold, 22 silver, and 48 bronze in 30 different sports.

The Kazakhstani team not only excelled in Hangzhou but also secured several spots in the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics. Four Kazakh athletes, including pentathletes Yelena Potapenko and George Boroda-Dudochkin, along with boxers Kamshybek Kunkabayev and Karina Ibragimova, clinched licenses for the prestigious event.

On the competition’s final day, Kazakhstan’s athletes won a silver medal in women’s karate and a bronze medal in artistic swimming.

The 19th Asian Games, hosted in Hangzhou, China, boasted a record participation of 12,500 athletes from 45 countries, competing in 61 sports over 15 days of intense competition. These games hold a special significance as they serve as Olympic qualifiers in nine sports: archery, artistic swimming, boxing, breaking, hockey, modern pentathlon, sailing, tennis, and water polo, with coveted Paris 2024 quotas on the line.

The Games were postponed by 12 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 54 venues, including 12 newly constructed ones, have been used for the games.

Hangzhou, the vibrant host city, has become the third Chinese city to stage the Asian Games, following the footsteps of Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010. The newly built Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium, China Hangzhou Esports Center, and Chun'an Jieshou Sports Centre Velodrome are among the arenas that have been created for the Games.