Starts of turkmen sportsmen at the XVIII Summer Asian Games

Sportsmen from Turkmenistan took part in free style wrestling and swimming competitions in the first day of the XVIII Summer Asian Games, which opening ceremony was held at Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.

The best result in free style wrestling among our athletes was demonstrated by Batry Borjakov, who was in the step away from bronze medal in the weight category up to 65 kilograms. In the 1/8 final, our wrestler took over the opponent from Indonesia with clear advantage 12:2 before the end of the fight, however, quarter final fight, he yielded to Japanese representative. In additional round with the athlete from Pakistan, it took less than two and half minute for our sportsman to win but the referees stopped the fight due to big difference in scores 10:1. Unfortunately, B. Borjakov lost in the bronze fight to the opponent from Kazakhstan.

Merdan Atayev was in the best ten in 100 m backstroke, having covered the distance in 56.20 seconds. Totally, 28 sportsmen from 17 countries took part in this discipline. Swimming and free style wrestling competitions are to be continued on the next day.