KZBlog

You can check out the Olympics at Gazeta.kz for coverage in Russian, but they aren’t providing a solid and comprehensive list of how Kazakhstan does every day at the Olympics. So I’m going to try to do that here. Any commenters who correct my mistakes or add information will be greatly rewarded.

In boxing, Bakhtiyar Artayev, gold medalist in welterweight in Athens 2004 and bronze medalist in the 2007 World Championships, is entered into the middleweight category in Beijing 2008. He beat Morroco’s boxer and will face the Russian 2 time World Champion, Matvey Korobov.

Yerkebulan Shynaliyev, light heavyweight beat the Lithuanian boxer and will face Puerto Rico’s Carlos Negron Colon.

In handball, Kazakhstan lost to Romania 31-19.

In volleyball, Kazakhstan lost to Serbia 3 sets to 1.

In the preliminary matches of women’s judo48kg Kelbet Nurgazina beat Jossimet Frederique from France and went on to beat Burkina Faso’s fighter as well. Next she will meet North Korea in the ring.

Most surprisingly, Inga Dudchenko came in fourth in the preliminaries of the 2000 meter women’s sculls rowing. She goes on to the quarterfinals. I had never heard that Kazakhstan was strong in rowing, so I hope she does well.