Kazakhstan taekwondo team signs up foreign athletes

Several promising athletes from South Korea and Turkey may soon join Kazakhstan's taekwondo national team, Tengrinews reports citing Vesti.kz.

President of Kazakhstan’s Taekwondo Federation Vyacheslav Kim spoke about Kazakhstan's progress in taekwondo and its plans for foreign athletes in an interview to Vesti.kz.

“(Cansel) Deniz from Turkey reached the second round of the Grand Prix in Astana. We are negotiating with her now," he said about one of the +67kg female athletes that may soon be capped for Kazakhstan.

"We also made an offer to Kim Bong-soo from Korea, he accepted our offer, (...) We now need to settle the transfer with the Korean Federation. And it is largely up to us," he said about the male athlete how may soon join Kazakhstan.

"We also invited a potential legionnaire, who is a two-time heavyweight champion. I will not disclose his name just yet (...) We have signed a preliminary contract with him and reached an agreement. As soon as he brings the letter of clearance we will begin getting a Kazakhstani passport for him. He is an amazing and extremely experienced guy. He really wants to get to the Olympics, and we can give him the chance,” Vyacheslav Kim said.

Speaking about the World Taekwondo Grand Prix Series 2 held in Kazakhstan's Astana on August 29-31 he said: "It was a great honor for the Kazakhstan Federation to host the top athletes of the world, taekwondo stars, Olympic and world champions. Only those with high enough rating for the word's Top 35 were eligible for the Gran Prix tour. Kazakhstan had only one such athlete - Feruza Yergeshova," Vyacheslav Kim said.

Feruza Yergeshova from Kazakhstan competed in the +67kg female league and won her first fight against Wiam Dislam from Morocco, but lost to Rosana Simon Alano from Spain in the second round.    

“Being the country hosting the series Kazakstan was able to put forth eight of its athletes. it was a great experience for the young Kazakh team: they trained with the leading taekwondo sportsmen. They felt the pressure experienced by the athletes in the competition of such a high rank. We vest high hopes on them. And they did well. In such a serious competition, some of the Kazakhstani athletes made it to the second round. Fariza (Aldangorova) showed good results by winning the first round, although in the second she lost to the winner of the tournament," he said. 

Kazakhstan's Fariza Aldangorova from Kazakhstan competed in the -49kg female league and won her fight against Hadjer Mustapha from France. In the second round she lost to Lucija Zaninovic from Croatia.

"Our young athlete Nursultan Mamayev, who was expected to win a medal, got overly pressured. Everyone was coming up to him and saying 'you can do it' or 'we are looking forward to a medal'. This overheated him. 15 days ago, he won a G1 tournament in Columbia," Vyacheslav Kim continued. 

Nursultan Mamayev lost in the first round of the -58kg men's league. 

Mereke Zhunussova from Kazakhstan competed in the +67kg female division but lost in the first round. Gulim Bibalayeva from Kazakhstan competed in the -67kg female league, and also lost in her first round. Assel Koilybay lost in the first round of the -58kg league.

Samiyl Duisenbay of Kazakhstan lost in his first round of the +80kg men's league. Maksat Abdrambek lost in the first round of -80kg league. Kairat Sarymsakov from Kazakhstan won his first round against Georges Kobenan from Cote d'Ivoire, but then lost to Siddhartha Bhat from Canada in the second round.

This left Kazakhstan without a single medal, by Vladislav Kim still remained optimistic about the country's young team and said that both men and women’s teams of Kazakhstan had good chances to show themselves well at the Asian Olympic Games in Korea this fall.  

Speaking about the Rio 2016 Olympics he said that none of the Kazakhstani athletes had high enough rankings to be admitted to the Games directly, so they would have to try and win they passes at the qualification round in December 2015.

206 sportsmen form 50 countries took part in the taekwondo Grand Prix Series 2 in Astana in the end of August.

Chen Yang Wei from Chinese Taipei won gold in the male -58kg league.

Alexey Denisenko from Russia won gold in the male -68kg league.

Mehdi Khodabakhshi from Iran won gold in the male -80kg league.

M'bar N'Diaye from France won gold in the male +80kg league.

Lucija Zaninovic from Croatia won gold in the female -49kg league.

Eva Calvo Gomez from Spain won gold in the female -57kg league.

Yun Fei Guo from China won gold in the female -67kg leagure.

Jacqueline Rose Galloway Sanchez from the United State won gold in the female +67kg league.

"We show our capital to the athletes. Many of them came here for the first time. They were impressed with its beauty. Lopez family from the American team came over after the tournament and said: "We have fallen in love with Kazakhstan!" (...) I am very pleased with the organisation level of the tournament," Vyacheslav Kim, President of Kazakhstan’s Taekwondo Federation said, adding that Kazakhstan would now host a G1 taekwondo tournament in August next year.

Writing by Assel Satubaldina, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina