Chinshanlo is a citizen of Kazakhstan: Talgat Yermegiyayev

A gold-winner of London Olympics-2012 Zulfiya Chinshanlo is a citizen of Kazakhstan, Vesti.kz reports citing chairman of Kazakhstan Agency for Sports and Physical Culture Talgat Yermegiyayev as saying. “Zulfiya Chinshanlo is our sportswoman. I don’t know why foreign media is discussing a change of her citizenship. She is a citizen of Kazakhstan. She had been living and training in Kazakhstan since she was 14. That’s why I personally have no questions to her. There has been no official claims submitted to the Agency or the Weightlifting Federation,” Yermegiyayev said. According to the Agency’s head, media has been hotly discussing this subject although the weightlifter has done nothing to provoke it. “Zulfiya was on vacation and decided to visit her relatives in China. On October 27 she came back to Kazakhstan. After a break she will go back to training for the world championships and the next Olympics as a member of Kazakhstan national team,” he added. Earlier Chinese media stated that China was going to insist on return of Kazakhstan champion and had sent a couple of official letters to Kazakhstan but got no replies. Deputy head of the weightlifting team of Hunan province Chzhou Zun Fu said that the issue would be resolved via diplomatic channels, if Kazakhstan did not let Chinshanlo go. However, Kazakhstan Weightlifting Federation stated that it did not receive any letter from China. Chinese media earlier whote that the weightlifter received her Chinese ID in the Public Security Department of Changsha city on October 22 and was going to perform as a member of Chinese national team, as her 5-year contract with Kazakhstan allegedly expired.