12 medals in Malaysia Paralympic Games won by Karaganda citizens

"Second Asian Youth Para Games were held from 24 to 31 October in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. From Karaganda region there were 9 athletes. Our boys were in swimming and track and field and won 12 medals - 4 golds, 4 silvers and 4 bronzes", says the press service.

Athletes have been trained by coaches Natalia Manohina (swimming) and Sergei Bezgachev (athletics).

Two gold medals were brought to our football team of the Karaganda region by Andrey Afanasyev. He has won the breaststroke and freestyle. "It was hard, of course, but the effort, exercises, and training brought their results", says A.Afanasyev, who is visually impaired, having gone in for swimming for 8 years.

The first places were by Kirill Kuznetsov (swimming, breaststroke) and Rufat Habibullin (athletics, javelin).

"This is my first international Paralympic competition. I had an accident when I was 17 years old. Prior to that I had played basketball. After the crash I thought I wouldn't be able to become an athlete. But my friends took me to Wheelchair Sports school and the coach Sergei Bezgachev asked me to do athletics. I liked it", shared his thoughts Habibullin.

At these sports events he won three medals: a gold, a silver and a bronze.

"In Malaysia, of course , for us, the climate was difficult. There have constantly been about 38 degrees of heat. Humidity is high, because of this it is difficult to breathe. However, we had time to acclimatize", said Leonella Burdina, who took third place in the swimming, the 100m freestyle.

Meanwhile the head swimming coach Manohina believes that the results of Karaganda athletes could be even better if there were a proper normal base for training.

"All international competitions take place in a 50-meter pool. In Karaganda we, unfortunately, do not have such a big pool. This is one of the few cities in Kazakhstan, where there is no pool, but we have good swimmers", explained the coach.

To prepare for the competition Karaganda athletes had to go to Taraz (edit. city in South Kazakhstan).

A total of 2,500 athletes competed from 32 countries at the second Asian Youth Para Games in Kuala Lumpur.

The Kazakh team included 38 athletes from across the country. In the team event Kazakhstan took 9th place and won 39 medals.