Yeldos Smetov: My next target is gold medal at Tokyo Olympics
ASTANA. KAZINFORM As reported earlier, judoka Yeldos Smetov brought a silver medal to the Kazakh team at the Olympic Games in Rio yesterday.
“I was ready. I came to the competition being in a good condition, and I think that I did my best. This is an excellent result. Nevertheless, I am not going to rest on laurels and be satisfied with this result. I will continue training to win a gold medal at the next Olympic Games in Tokyo. I would like to thank all our fans. This is the victory of our country, our nation!” said Yeldos Smetov after the competition.
According to Chief Coach Yermek Imambekov, the team planned to take a gold and they were hopeful for Yeldos namelt. “We fell short and stand the second now. I think, we all has too much emotions being happy of qualifying for the final round, and Yeldos failed to keep down,” said Imambekov.
Recall that the last time Kazakhstan took a medal in judoka was eight years ago at Beijing Olympics, when Askhat Zhitkeyev lost to Mongolian sportsman Naidan Tuvshinbayar in men's half-heavyweight final and became a silver medalist too.