Asian Games to give impetus for biathlon development in Kazakhstan and Asian region – S. Teleubayeva
According to her, popularity of this sport grows worldwide and it is just developing in our country. 'Today around 600 people are involved in biathlon in Kazakhstan. 33 trainers are working in sports schools. The main biathlon training centers are the cities of Ridder and Schuchinsk in East Kazakhstan and Akmola regions respectively. Unfortunately there is only one shooting range where we can improve shooting skill. The roller ski trail does not meet standards and level of the leading athletes of our country', the coach said.
The lack of sufficient number of sports facilities, shooting ranges, roller and ski trails and insufficient financing are hampering this sport from development, the specialist believes. In Kazakhstan only 7 out of 16 regions are developing biathlon.
'The victory of Yelena Khrustaleva at the 21st Olympic Games in Vancouver, certainly, gave a good boost to the popularization of biathlon in our country. Before, people only heard about it or watched on TV but now we can say that people go into this sport in Kazakhstan', S. Teleubayeva said.
In whole the results of the Kazakh biathletes are successful this year. Yelena Khrustaleva won silver in individual race in Vancouver, Yan Savitsky was 27th in pursuit. Our juniors were participating at a good level at the Junior World Championship.
Kazakhstan has a task of entering the top three, and becoming the first in a team rating will be ideal which is to reflect all the expectations. 'As head coach Alexander Tkachuk thinks, our team is able to win two gold medals in individual races - Yelena Khrustaleva and Alexander Chervyakov and one in men's relay. These are only expectations', S. Teleubayeva said. She emphasized that these Games would give an impetus for the development of biathlon in Kazakhstan and in Asian region as well.
According to her the construction of the ski-biathlon complex in Almaty region is almost finished. 'Such complex is of high importance for Kazakhstan. We have a lot of countries already willing to bring their sportsmen to the complex because of the favorable climate conditions that we have here in Almaty. The complex is built at 1500 meters height in the mountains.
The Shchuchinsk complex has different climate conditions but it is also very important. We should remember how many athletes were born and raised in that region. The pace of the construction is very slow but when the complex is finished it will allow to hold the competitions at any level. These complexes are not luxury for our country it is necessity for Kazakhstan that has lofty aims ahead', S. Teleubaeva added.