nCa Report
Ashgabat, 8 July 2013 (nCa) — The Ashgabat stadium was packed to capacity Sunday evening. Except for government officials, diplomats and journalists, everyone was under 23. Some of us must have felt quite ancient in the presence of such enormous numbers of vibrant, colourfully dressed youth.
The occasion was the transfer of the Asian Indoor Games and Martial Arts flag from Incheon (Korea) to Ashgabat (Turkmenistan).
The ceremony was elaborate.
A special flight of the Turkmenistan Airlines brought back the Turkmen contingent that participated in the Incheon Games and won 7 medals. The flag that was handed over by the Korean games committee to the Turkmen sports officials was also brought in the same flight.
From the airport the flag was carried by a long procession of motor vehicles to the Ashgabat stadium where the medal-winning athletes, trailed by the rest of the sports contingent, made a round of the stadium, carrying the national and the Games flags.
After the flag hoisting ceremony, DPM Toyliyev (education, science, healthcare, sports, tourism, religious affairs) read a message from President Berdymuhamedov and gave cash prizes to the medal winners. The gold medal winners got US $ 10000 each, silver medal $ 5000, and bronze medal $ 3000.
Here is the list of medals won by the Turkmen athletes at the Incheon Games:
Nurali Yalkapov – Kurash, weight category 90 kg – Gold medal – Cash prize by Turkmen government US $ 10000
Qurban Begkhanov – Kickboxing, weight category 57 kg – Gold medal – Cash prize by Turkmen government US $ 10000
Muhammet Temirov – Kurash, weight category 73 kg – Silver medal – Cash prize by Turkmen government US $ 50000
Serdar Jummyev – Kurash, weight category 81 kg – Silver medal – Cash prize by Turkmen government US $ 5000
Ms. Ayna Jumakuliyeva – Kurash, weight category 52 kg – Silver medal – Cash prize by Turkmen government US $ 5000
Ms. Nasiba Surkieva – Kurash , weight category 63 kg – Silver medal – Cash prize by Turkmen government US $ 5000
Shohrat Khaliyev – Kickboxing, weight category 63.5 kg – Bronze medal – Cash prize by Turkmen government US $ 3000
The cash prize were given from the charitable fund of the president of Turkmenistan.
The flag will remain in Turkmenistan for the next four years. Turkmenistan will host the V Asian Indoor Games and Martial Arts in 2017.
[Kurash is a Turkic form of folk wrestling. See Wikipedia entry on Kurash: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurash]