Mr. Bekzhan Bektenov is the General Secretary of the Kazakhstan Boxing Federation who replied the questions of the management of the Asian Boxing Confederation. Kazakhstan is a leading boxing nation in the world and their boxers achieved plenty of medals in the recent editions of the Olympic Games, AIBA and ASBC events.
The welterweight (69kg) is Kazakhstan’s best area, their boxers achieved the gold medals in the previous four editions of the Olympic Games in Athens, in Beijing, in London and in Rio de Janeiro. Kazakhstan’s new men’s elite team claimed six medals in the Hamburg 2017 AIBA World Boxing Championships in Germany which was a successful start for them in the first year of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic era.
– Could you please introduce your country’s boxing life?
– Boxing is one of the most favourite and popular kind of sports in Kazakhstan. In 2017 we celebrate the Kazakhstan boxing’s 84th Anniversary since the establishment of the first boxing organization in our country. Throughout the life of the independent Kazakhstan our boxers have won 7 gold medals at the Olympic Games. It is a good result which illustrates the potential of boxing in our country. Olympic Champions as Vasiliy Zhirov, Bekzat Sattarkhanov, Bakhtiyar Artayev, Bakhyt Sarsekbayev, Serik Sapiyev, Yermakhan Ibraimov and Daniyar Yeleussinov are known to all and treated with the utmost respect of fans. Champions of the last Olympic Games have got a good career and many of them occupied high positions in sports management and parliament. Their example encourages young people to do sports and achieve success.
– Would you like to tell us your strategic plans for the future and the key developments in your country?
– Our task for the future is to create new champions as much as possible and keep the leadership on the continent. Therefore, we build the sports centres in small cities, towns and remote locations where any boy or girl can practice boxing under the guidance of the experienced coaches. There are four such centres in Kazakhstan and we are building two more now. In the future we want any child to be able to do boxing in the city or town where he or she lives.
We have succeeded in forming of competitive spirit in regions competing to each other in order to provide more good fighters for National Boxing Team. Except for National Championships it is held annually a special tournament the Kazakhstan Boxing Federation Cup which became a regular examination for endurance of athletes and skills of coaches. I believe we will go further in this direction and continue to search for new talents, new stiles improving and promoting the competition.
– What are the main strengths and issues in your boxing life?
– We still have issues with low competition, particularly in the women boxing. We are trying to solve this problem by holding new women boxing tournaments including international ones. I think the main advantage of Kazakhstan boxing is its dynamic development. Growing competition doesn’t let us stand still. We are trying to improve the level of our R&Js and coaches. We would like anyone to have opportunity to realize own ambitions and learn from the experiences of the best specialists in the world. Our World Boxing Academy is working for this purpose where we are pleased to invite coaches, athletes and R&Js from different countries.
