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International Games News from Kazakhstan
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2011 Asian Winter Games
confirmation
January 9, 2006 Kazakhstan's KAZINFORM news service is confirming that Almaty, Kazakhstan has been awarded the rights to host the 2011 Asian Winter Games. Official contracts between the Olympic Council of Asia, the Kazakhstan National Olympic Committee and Almaty's Organizing Committee are due to be signed in March. Preliminary dates for the games are January 30-February 6, 2011. Almaty (formerly known as Alma-Ata) sits in the midst of Kazakhstan's prime apple producing territory, and the word variously translated into English (depending on the source) as “apple abundance” "A city of apples", "Grand father of apple" "full of apple-trees" "apple abundance” or "The Place of Apples". Any way you slice it, its plain, Almaty and apples go together. This recalls the slogan of the 2003 Asian Winter Games host, Aomori, Japan, "Aomori is apples, and apples are Aomori." Almaty is more famous in the sporting world for its high altitude skating rink, Medeo. The rink gained almost mythical status as it was reserved almost exclusively for the use of skaters from the Soviet Union and East Germany who set scores of world records at the venue (with a little help from the Norwegians) from as early as 1951 until 1986 when indoor skating arenas began to take precedence. It would be fascinating to see the 2011 Asian Winter Games take place at the venue, which has not been kept in good repair the past decade, and possible the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, of which Almaty is a candidate. Announcement on 2011 Asian Winter Games host next week?December 31, 2005 Agence France Presse is reporting that Imangali Tasmagambetov, the former Primer Minister of Kazakhstan, now Mayor of Almaty (Alma-Ata) has announced that Almaty will be awarded the right to host the Asian Winter Games of 2011. The report stated that the official announcement will be made next week at the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) offices in Kuwait. Confusion over the status of Asian Winter Games scheduled for 2009 has been addressed by the report of the 24th OCA General Assembly Guangzhou from September of this year, despite the fact that the Lebanese Olympic Committee web site still prominently displays the news that they will be holding the Asian Winter Games in 2009 and other spurious sources stating that Beirut will hold those games in 2011. The OCA confirmed in September that the future schedule of Asian events would be:
The majority of those events had been previously announced. In December of 2003 the Olympic Council of Asia announced that it was considering withdrawing the 2009 Asian Winter Games from Beirut (rights that had been awarded in 2002) because Lebanon had "not adhered to the council’s constitution and the host city contract.” It looks like this has been finalized, though there did not seem to be any announcement from the OCA as to when this occurred. The OCA had also decided at the time to change the scheduling of the Asian Winter Games to one year before the summer version of the games, rather than the year after. For the last several editions of the games, the summer versions have occurred in the latter half of the year, while the winter versions just months after in the winter of the next year. Putting the winter games in the preceding year would put the winter version some 18-22 months before the summer games, as opposed to 3-6 months after the summer games, and would help with scheduling and planning for the games. Returning to Asian Winter Games to 2011 would once again place those games just a few months after the summer games. The 2010 Asian Games are scheduled to be held in Guanzhou, China in November 2010. Typhoid epidemic hushed during Central Asian Games? November 6, 2003 Eurasianet is reporting that an epidemic of typhoid has been sweeping through Dushanbe, Tajikistan and that Tajik health officials decided not to disclose that an outbreak was occurring because of the Central Asian Games that were being held in Dushanbe from October 14-20. Announcements were made immediately after the games closed. Thousands have been affected by the epidemic and hundreds hospitalized. Over 700 athletes from the five central Asian nations of Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan competed in athletics, boxing, football, judo, kurash, taekwondo, shooting, wrestling, and volleyball at the games, with visiting Kazakhstan taking home the most medals. Athletes from Tajikistan were to be rewarded with $500 dollars for gold medals, $300 for silver and $200 for bronze medals at the games. 2003 Central Asian Games Medals
Nations
worry over Central Asian Games
October
7, 2003 The Central Asian Games, with participation from
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan,
scheduled to run from October 14 - 20 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, have some
in the host country and some of the participating nations expressing
concern. The games are being called the fifth edition, though the fourth
edition, scheduled to be held in 2001, were never held. Asia-Plus weekly expressed concerns last month with an
article headlined, "Should Tajikistan host Central Asian
Games?" and quoted Rahim Masov, the Director of the Institute of
History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Tajik Academy of Sciences,
who said that he does not feel it is the right time to hold the games.
"On the whole, I consider such events ought to be held when a
normal life of people in the country returns to the normal." He
also expressed concerns about the state of the facilities. Others, including Tuyghun Karimov, Secretary of the
Communist Party of Tajikistan, Political scientist Suhrob Sharipov, the
Deputy Chairman of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan and Muhiddin
Kabiri, the Chairman of the Majlisi Namonyadagon Committee for Energy
and Construction and the Tajik Sports Committee have all gone on the
record that they are in favor of Tajikistan holding the games. The
sports committee last month reported that there was still some work to
do on some facilities, including the Central Republican Stadium, but the
venues will be ready on time. In Kyrgystan, worries of another sort were expressed in
the Vesherniy Bishkek newspaper. "Are we going to be defeated?" asked the
paper. The article claimed that the development of sports was much more
advanced in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and that athletes from Kyrgystan
had little chance of competing against these two nations. Money that was
supposed to be set aside by government sources for training purposes
(three million soms, about $70,000 US dollars) has not been provided. |