Happy to win medal for my country - Nikolai Karpenko

17:35, 31 January 2011

ALMATY. January 31. KAZINFORM /Aigul Turysbekova/ Nikolai Karpenko's bronze medal who participated in ski jumping is like 'gold' for us because Japanese sportsmen are the world leaders in this sport and he competed hard. President of Ski Jumps Federation of Kazakhstan Andrei Verveykin said it at the press conference in Almaty upon the completion of the tournament.

'I am just glad that the Kazakhstani sportsman competed hard with Japanese sportsmen', A. Verveykin said. As he added 7^th Asian Winter Games Champion Kazuya Yoshioka was the winner of the World Cup and silver medal winner Kazuya Funaki was an Olympic Champion.

The head coach of Japan noted that the tournament was held at very high level. 'The ski jumps meet all the standards. The weather and conditions were just great', he said. The coach also said that the Asian Games were the start of the season for his team therefore he brought the best sportsmen of his team to participate in the Games.

N. Karpenko thanked all fans who supported him. 'We had a goal to perform at the best level. We had long preparation process for these Games. I am just happy to have won a medal for my country', the sportsmen confessed.

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