Borat's Learnings About Sports -- It's Nice!
| 15
|
by user Roblefko
Sports in Kazakhstan
While not well known, the practice of sports in Kazakhstan is a unique part of the national heritage. Kazakhstanis consistently perform well in Olympic competitions, especially in boxing. Kazakh boxers are generally well known in the world. In last 3 Olympic games their performance was assessed as one of the best and they had more medals than any countries in the world except Cuba and Russia (in all three games). In 1996 and 2004 two Kazakh boxers (Vasiliy Jirov in 1996 and Bakhtiyar Artayev in 2004) were recognized as the best boxers for their techniques with the Val Barker trophy, awarded to the best boxer of the tournament. Kazakh boxers performed well in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Two boxers, Bekzat Sattarkhanov and Yermakhan Ibraimov, earned gold medals. Another two boxers, Bulat Jumadilov and Mukhtarkhan Dildabekov, earned silver medals. It should also be noted that Kazakhstani boxer, Oleg Maskaev, is currently the WBC Heavyweight Champion after knocking out Hasim Rahman on August 12, 2006.
Kazakhstan is also well known for its cyclists. Alexander Vinokourov represents Kazakhstan in his cycling career for the Spanish Astana-Würth Team. Vinokourov has an impressive cycling record finishing third overall in the 2003 Tour de France. Vinokourov finished 5th in the 2005 Tour de France, while two other young Kazakhstanis, Kashechkin and Iglinskiy, finished 19th and 37th, respectively. In 2006 Vinokourov's team became known as "Team Astana" and adopted the color of the Kazakh flag for its uniforms. The same year Vinokourov and Kashechkin have won first and third places in general classification at La Vuelta'06 in Italy.
In September of 2006, Vino won the 61st Vuelta a España by attacking Alejandro Valverde in dramatic fashion with 23km to go in Stage 17. He then held on to his lead over the next four stages, including the final individual time trial to win the Vuelta.
More Borat Pics
