KZBlog

While Kazakhstan has taken some more medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics since I last blogged, the boxing team upon which many hopes were pinned isn’t performing according to expectations. Of course neither is the US boxing team which went home with one lousy bronze so maybe it’s just a bad moon over China.

The biggest disappointment for Kazakhstan was Bakhtiyar Artayev’s loss of the middleweight (75kg) quarterfinal bout to James Degale from the UK 8-3. Artayev was an aggressive opponent in the ring, throwing a lot of punches and some of them very strong, but Degale put up a better defense and picked his moments to attack. With higher accuracy, the British boxer took the match in a clear victory. Artayev won the gold in the welterweight (69kg) category in Athens 2004 and was a favorite in his draw after he beat the supposedly undefeatable Korobov. That was the second biggest upset of these Games, but the biggest upset had to be Degale’s. In fact, Artayev looked like he didn’t know what to do with himself until his coach hugged him ringside.

In more bad news, Thursday night Yerkebulan Shynaliyev lost by decision when he tied China’s Zhang Xiopang 4-4 in the light heavyweight division (81kg). While some say the jury was biased toward the host country, Xiopang demonstrated dominance throughout most of the fight. It is true that Xiopang fell at one point in the fight but sadly, Shynaliyev could never gain the upper hand for long.

Shynaliyev’s place in Olympic history is guaranteed however after his previous opponent, Dzhakhon Kurbanov of Tajikistan was disqualified for biting. 17 seconds before the end of the third round, Kurbanov, who was behind in points anyway, took the chance during a hold to bite his Kazakh opponent on the shoulder hard enough to draw blood. Kurbanov had been previously warned for shoving and holding. Kurbanov was disqualified and Shynaliyev declared the winner.

Before we get to the good news for Kazakhstan, there’s some good news for India. In the bronze medal match of the men’s freestyle (66 kg), Indian wrestler Sushil Kumar defeated Leonid Speiridonov of Kazakhstan. This is the first time India has ever won more than one medal at the Olympics. Usually, if India does win a medal, it is in volleyball. So it is also unusual that both of India’s 2008 medals have gone to individuals rather than teams.

On the same evening, Bakhyt Sarsekbayev, the Asian champion, went up against Kim Jung Joo of South Korea. Joo became the favorite for the medal in the welterweight (69kg) after defeating American Demetrius Andrade 11-8. Here in Astana we were hoping they had underestimated Sarsekbaeyv. And they had! With a decisive 10-6 victory, the Kazakh boxer moves on to the finals.

There was no question who was in control of the bout all four rounds. With a slightly longer reach, Sarsekbayev managed to keep control of the distance, moving in only to launch a series of powerful blows. While Joo also followed the strategy of Degale and the Thai Boonjumnong, keeping his gloves up, trying to pick his moments, the Kazakh wouldn’t give him the chance, staying out of reach, feinting, and forcing the Korean to defend against his own offense. In fact, the referee had to stop the fight to check on a nosebleed by the beat-up Korean.

That being said, the Kazakh boxer has to work on his defense, like most boxers from Kazakhstan. He stayed on the attack through the whole match and that almost cost him the victory. Even when he was up by 3 points in the third round, he still tried to pile the points on. His aggression made him sloppy and Joo managed to get some nice hits in. So Bakekev, work on keeping your gloves up. He will face Cuban Carlos Banteaux on Sunday, Aug 24th for the gold.

Interestingly, Banteaux made it to the finals by defeating China’s best medal hope, Hanati Silamu, himelf an ethnic Kazakh. Hanati is the Chinese variant on the common Kazakh name, Kanat. It would have been interesting and satisfying for ethnic pride to watch two Kazakhs battle it out. Of course, as an American I would have been rooting for Sarsekbayev to deny China yet another gold medal!

And outside the boxing ring, Kazakhstan can lift its spirits by celebrating Taimuraz Tigiyev who took the silver in freestyle wrestling, 96kg category. He lost to Shirvai Muradov of Russia.