14 Kazakhstan weight-lifters will compete for 8 Olympic spots

14 Kazakhstan weight-lifters will compete for 8 London Olympics spots, Tengrinews.kz reports, citing Kazakhstan national team head coach Aleksey Ni. “We have gained eight Olympic spots in Paris World Championship. There are four spots for men and four spots for women. However we have seven men and seven women candidates for these spots at present. Kazakhstan Championship will be held in Taldykorgan in the end of May. This competition will be the last qualifying tournament prior to the Olympic Games,” Ni said. One of the strongest Kazakhstan weight-lifters Svetlana Podobedova competed in Paris World Championship in spite of her injury and got a silver medal. “Now Sveta is well. She has recovered after her injury and is training now. The same is true for Beijing Olympics bronze prize-winner Mariya Grabovetskaya. She underwent a surgery last year. She hasn’t performed anywhere yet. However she is training now and there is a chance that she will get into the Olympics team” the head coach added. The current world champion Ilya Ilyin is training on individual basis. According to Ni he is in Poland now, but is returning to Kazakhstan in the nearest future. He will continue training in Astana. Besides Ilyin there are three more Olympic spots candidates in the team. They are Vladimir Sedov, Vladimir Kuznetsov and Sergey Istomin. They are getting prepared in Taldykorgan under the guidance of their personal coaches. Kazakhstan weight-lifters won four medals (two gold and two silver) in Paris World Championship. Zulfiya Chinshanlo became the world champion and Maya Maneza got a silver medal. The athletes will fight for Olympics set of medals on July 28 – August 6. According to Ni, Kazakhstan weight-lifters are expected to win five medals in London.