Kazakhstan will be taking part in the Islamic Solidarity Games which will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan in the middle part of May. The head coach of the Kazakh team Mr. Myrzagali Aitzhanov selected seven boxers to take part in the Islamic Solidarity Games which will be held short after the ASBC Asian Confederation Boxing Championships.
National Champion and Bocskai Memorial Tournament winner Azat Makhmetov joined to the international events in 2013 and he achieved several titles in the AOB events. He claimed silver in the last Kazakh National Championships in 2016 and received the right to box at the flyweight (52kg) in Baku.
Kazakh National Championships silver medallist Nurbol Kalzhanov competed in the World Series of Boxing and won several medals in the international AOB tournaments since 2010. The 25-year-old bantamweight (56kg) boxer also competed in the World Series of Boxing and will be boxing in Baku after his three big events this year.
Sultan Zaurbek was silver medallist in the 2014 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships in Sofia and he is now enough strong in the elite level to win medals. The 21-year-old lightweight (60kg) boxer won the 2016 Belgrade Winner Tournament where he defeated Brazil’s Rio 2016 Olympic Games winner Robson Conceicao in the final.
Pavlodar’s 21-year-old Kuan Kuatov is Kazakhstan’s new light welterweight (64kg) hope who claimed silver medal in the National Championships half year ago. The young talent attended in the Thailand International Invitational Tournament one month ago where he reached the quarter-final stage of the event.
ASBC Asian Confederation Youth Boxing Championships bronze medallist Ilya Ochkin competed at the Bocskai Memorial Tournament in the recent two years while his last international event was the Great Silk Way Tournament in Baku. The 21-year-old welterweight (69kg) boxer will be returning to Azerbaijan to get a medal in the Games.
Former ASBC Asian Youth Champion Tursynbai Kulakhmet is in top form, he moved back to his previous middleweight (75kg) and won the title in the Strandja Memorial Tournament in Bulgaria two and half months ago. The Strandja Memorial Tournament is one of the strongest AOB event of the world therefore Kulakhmet’s expectations are high in the Games.
Nurlan Saparbay will be turning to 20 only later this year and following his bronze medal in the Kazakh National Championships he joined to the international AOB tournaments this year. Saparbay will be the youngest team member in the squad who has got medal expectations at the super heavyweight (+91kg) in Baku.
Kazakhstan’s squad in the Islamic Solidarity Games
52kg: Azat Makhmetov, 1991
56kg: Nurbol Kalzhanov, 1992
60kg: Sultan Zaurbek, 1996
64kg: Kuan Kuatov, 1996
69kg: Ilya Ochkin, 1996
75kg: Tursynbai Kulakhmet, 1994
+91kg: Nurlan Saparbay, 1997.
