Asian Winter Games: Surprise bronze to Iran
Posted on | February 2, 2011 | Category: News
Happy medallists in Men’s Middle Distance.
Photo: Asian Winter Games OC
The VII Asian Winter Games continued today with the middle distance races. The favourites, Olga Novikova and Mikhail Sorokin, from the host country Kazakhstan, took expected victories and their second individual gold medals on Men’s and Women’s races, seconded by their compatriots Yevgeniya Kuzmina and Vitaliy Lilichenko on silver medals. Kuzmina recovered remarkably well from her disappointing performance from the Sprint race and chased Novikova up until the end.
Exciting fight for bronze
The fiercest competition today was for the bronze medals. In the men’s race, Iran’s Bejjan Kangarloo did a fantastic race, took the bronze medal and shocked the audience at the Soldatskoje Uschelja Ski Stadium. 22-year-old Iranian lives and trains in Calgary, Canada, and is a member of the Iranian cross-country national team too.
“I know that I am a quite good skier, but I am rather new to ski orienteering. I really love the challenge in ski orienteering: tough physical effort, technical skiing and mental control in one package. I did not believe I could get a medal today, so I am shocked myself too”, said the smiling medallist after the prize giving ceremony.
Behind Kargarloo, another Iranian, Yasin Shemshaki, took the fourth place before China’s Wenqiang Dong and Mongolia’s sprint bronze medallist Gerelt-Od Bayaraa. In women’s race, China’s Xiaoting Liu and Korea’s talented Ja Youn Kim fought hard for the bronze and finally Kim had to yield with the mere 44 seconds to Monday’s silver winner Liu.
Important medal for Iran
“This is our country’s first appearance in ski orienteering in international events. Ski orienteering is an interesting sport and it really fits well to the programme of the Asian Winter Games. This medal today is very important for my country, and it’s nascent ski orienteering sport. It gives us encouragement to work further in Iran, but also in Asia in general”, commented the pleased Iesa Saveh Shemshaki, the president of Iranian Ski Federation and the chairman of Asian Ski Federations.
The Asian Winter Games continues tomorrow with the long distance races.
Results
Women
1) Olga Novikova, Kazakhstan
2) Yevgeniya Kuzmina, Kazakhstan
3) Xiaoting Liu, China
4) Ja Youn Kim, Korea
5) Seelbi Choi, Korea
6) Otgontsetseg Chinbat, Mongolia
Men
1) Mikhail Sorokin, Kazakhstan
2) Vitaly Lilichenko, Kazakhstan
3) Bejjan Kangarloo, Iran
4) Yasin Shemshaki, Iran
5) Dong Wen Qiang, China
6) Gerelt-Od Bayaraa, Mongolia
Photo: Asian Winter Games OC
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