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Kazakhstan sports talent surges as weightlifters sweep 5 medals at Asian Championships

James Okafor | GlobalBeat

Kazakhstan weightlifters won five medals, including two gold, at the Asian Weightlifting Championships that began Tuesday in Tashkent.

The haul instantly elevates Kazakhstan to second place on the early medal table, behind only dominant China.

The performance comes weeks after President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told parliament sport would anchor a new national brand built on “digital, creative and human capital.” Coaches said the result vindicates a four-year overhaul of training centers that put foreign experts alongside Soviet-era veterans.

Gold number one arrived through Rizat Rakhmetov’s final lift of 183 kg in the 61 kg clean and jerk. His combined 326 kg edged South Korea’s Park Yong-jun by 2 kg and drew a roar from a Kazakh flag-waving corner at the Uzbek capital’s Yunusabad Sports Complex. “We got the tactic exactly right,” Sergey Bondarenko, the team’s Belarusian sprint coach, told reporters. “He risked 189 on the last attempt, played it safe, and it paid.”

Arli Chontey backed that up minutes later in the 55 kg class, banging down 210 kg for a total of 382 kg. The pair left Kazakhstan trailing only China, which collected seven medals on the opening night, and pushed perennial powers Iran and Uzbekistan off the podium in those categories.

The breakthrough did not stop there. K Medal counted a silver for Alexandra Grishina in the women’s 49 kg snatch and bronzes from Nurgissa Kassenov (67 kg) and Aisha Omarova (55 kg). “Five from five sets the tone,” said team captain Igor Obraztsov inside a corridor thick with chalk dust and shouted phone calls to Nur-Sultan. The federation now targets eight podium spots across the six-day meet, which doubles as Paris 2024 qualification.

Foreign analysts credit a government program called “Sports Bridge” that pays veteran Soviet coaches the same wage it pays imported strength scientists from Italy and Australia. Budget documents show the project soaked up $62 million between 2022 and 2024, a figure the Health Ministry defends because “one medal lifts our brand more than one oil barrel,” an adviser told state television.

Weightlifting is Kazakhstan’s historical superpower. Tokyo bronze still hangs in Rakhat Kerey’s living room. Yet doping bans gutted the squad in 2018, forcing coaches to rebuild with athletes who began with PVC pipes in village gyms. “We vowed the next generation would lift clean and still win,” federation boss Maxim Koshkin said. Tuesday’s medal rush suggests they might deliver.

Tokayev’s agenda extends beyond medals. Officials say niche sports allow Kazakhstan to punch above its economic weight while oil revenues plateau. Digital tenge pilots and e-governance grabs headlines in Western capitals, but stadium heroics move citizens, one presidential aide admitted. Winning also opens doors; Tokyo success secured training base offers in Poland and sponsorship talks with Qatari conglomerates.

Inside the hall the relationship is visceral. Parents filmed Uzbek athletes on one side, Kazakh parents on the other, divided by a strip of rubber mat. Both nations share Soviet nostalgia, but Tuesday belonged to Kazakhstan. “I cried,” spectator Dana Kuspanova, 17, said outside after Chontey’s lift. “He only smiled once but it was enough.”

Tashkent’s compact arena, built for the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games, fits 3,000 spectators. No seats were empty after word spread that Kazakhstan lifters looked “on fire,” a correspondent for Uzbek daily Kommersant wrote. Local fans clapped even when their own athletes failed attempts, a gesture appreciated by Kazakh journalists tweeting the visit “#goodneighbors”.

China still leads the overall medal count comfortably, sweeping three women’s events later on Tuesday night. But coach Bondarenko argues Kazakhstan “has depth China can’t match in lightweight categories.” With four days left, the squad must prove that or watch the standings level out. The president’s office sent a WhatsApp burst to reporters at 23:14 local time. “Keep going, lads. The country is awake and watching.”

Background

Weightlifting roots run deep in Kazakhstan, a country of 20 million that inherited Soviet training manuals when the USSR collapsed in 1991. Early independence years saw athletes lift under Russian flags due to funding shortages. A breakthrough arrived at Sydney 2000 when Sergey Filimonov claimed Kazakhstan’s first Olympic lifting medal. The program then suffered turbulence after at least eight weightlifters were barred for doping from 2008 to 2016, forcing officials to slash entourages and public stipends. The sports ministry renamed the federation in 2017 and imposed lifetime bans on coaches linked to repeat violations, moves praised by the International Weightlifting Federation at the time.

The reforms coincided with cash injections from national oil export revenue that peaked at $58 billion in 2022. Government documents channel about 0.3 percent of yearly hydrocarbon income to sport infrastructure, enough to build 32 indoor weight rooms and fund travel for 450 coaches across 16 disciplines. Weightlifting retained priority status because medals cost roughly $350,000 each, cheaper than cycling or skiing, internal audits show. Regional governments compete to host academies because winners attract additional funding. Since 2020, Kazakh lifters have climbed from 22nd to 12th on the IWF world rankings, according to federation updates.

What’s Next

Rakhmetov and Grishina return Friday for individual lift finals that count double toward Paris Olympic ranking points, drawing scouts from French clubs. The entire team flies home on Sunday regardless of results for a mandatory medical camp, setting up an internal test against Russian clubs in Oral on 15 April where coaches will decide who competes at December’s IWF World Cup in Phuket. Meanwhile the sports ministry must finalize budgets for 2025-2027 amid falling crude prices that some lawmakers say could force a 15 percent cut.

Tokayev will address medalists in a live broadcast expected Wednesday, a reward previously reserved only for Olympic champions. Analysts predict he will plug weightlifting as the emotional edge of a Kazakhstan image campaign aimed at investors and tourism. Whether athletes can keep the medals coming in Tashkent matters less than convincing a domestic audience that oil is no longer the only thing their country can sell to the world.