Tag Archives: sport

Kazakh champion weightlifter banned from Rio Games after failing drugs test

ALMATY, JUNE 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ilya Ilin, a sporting hero in Kazakhstan after winning a weightlifting gold medal at the London Olympics in 2012, has been banned from the Olympics in Rio later this year after more evidence emerged that he had taked performance enhancing drugs.

The new evidence apparently showed that he took the drugs for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. This comes on top of other evidence that showed he took drugs at the London Olympics in 2012.

Three other Kazakh weightlifters — Svetlana Podobedova, Maia Maneza, Zulfiya Chinshanlo — have also been found guilty of doping at the London 2012 Olympics.

Kazakhstan won seven gold medals at the London Olympics, its best ever haul. Four of these medals were in weightlifting.

Mr Ilin has denied the drug-taking charges and instead said a change in how the samples are taken and tested was to blame for an incorrect positive test.

News of his suspension spread across Kazakhstan, shocking and angering people. Kazakh politicians lined up to give him their support.

“Whatever the decision taken on the athlete Ilya Ilin, he has earned our support as a leading sportsman and patriot of Kazakhstan,” said Kassym Jomart-Tokayev, chairman of Kazakhstan’s Senate.

And it was a similar story from ordinary Kazakhs.

Aizhan, a resident of Almaty, said that he had uploaded Ilin’s picture on to his Facebook site as a show of support. He said: “Honestly, I am very upset with this scandal and even more with how it is covered by foreign media. I believe his words.”

Bolat Mukashev, who works in the public sector, said: “I am very upset and support Ilya. The whole country believed in him and now this. Of course there is no smoke without fire but nobody denies that this is a trap.”

For Kazakhstan, the seven gold medals won at the London Olympics were a huge boost to their national pride and self-image. It had been part of the government’s policy to promote Kazakhstan through sport. It recruited weightlifters from China and tennis players and athletes from Russia to boost its cause.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Editorial: Azeri sport sponsorship

JUNE 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) -Viewers watching the UEFA European football championships in France will have noticed, it’s impossible not to, SOCAR sponsorship rolling across the advertising hoarding on the side of the pitch.

Even in a recession, SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company, finds the cash to sponsor a major sporting event. This weekend, too, Baku hosts its inaugural Formula 1 Grand Prix. Last summer the city hosted the first European Games.

The total bill for these lavish affairs is likely to run to the billions of dollars. Of course the advertising has raised Azerbaijan’s profile but to what end? SOCAR doesn’t need to become a household name in Europe; athletics and motorsport are hardly integral to the Azerbaijani national character.

Most of these sporting deals would have been organised before the collapse in oil prices that has pressured Azerbaijan’s economy, tipped it into recession and squeezed jobs. Ordinary Azerbaijanis are not having a good time, as shown by nationwide protests earlier this year. Signs of resentment are being more easily picked up.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Azerbaijan’s SOCAR becomes EURO sponsor

JUNE 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company, is a major sponsor of the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament currently taking place in France. Neither SOCAR, nor UEFA disclosed the amount paid for the sponsorship, although local media outlets have said it is around 120m manat ($80m).Azerbaijan’s government had previously sponsored Spain’s Atletico Madrid and England’s Sheffield Wednesday.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Azerbaijan readies for first F1 race

JUNE 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan hosts its first Formula 1 Grand Prix in Baku on June 17-19, a race that an estimated 350m people will watch on TV around the world.

President Ilham Aliyev hopes that the race will give Azerbaijan’s profile a major boost, but human rights campaigners are also using it as an opportunity to highlight its poor human rights record.

The newly-built Baku Circuit, a 6km circuit through the city’s historical centre, is fast, allowing cars to hit speeds of up to 340km per hour, making it the fastest street track in the world, according to the organisers.

Spanish driver Fernando Alonso said that it was a unique circuit.

“It’s good both for drivers and in terms of the show for spectators,” he told the formula1.com website.

But in the host city, few Azerbaijanis share his excitement.

With oil prices down, Azerbaijan, which depends on income from oil and gas exports, is predicted to drop into a recession this year.

Official data has not been released but Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has estimated that the authorities have spent $250m on hosting the F1 race — roughly half the annual healthcare budget.

Locals said the Azerbaijani government should be concentrating on improving the country’s economy.

Bahruz, a 21-year old student in Baku, told the Conway Bulletin’s Azerbaijan correspondent that unemployment has been rising fast.

“Formula 1 is a waste of money. It just serves the government to build an image as a sport-loving country,” he said.

Mr Aliyev appears to have decided to promote Azerbaijan through hosting sports events and sponsoring teams. Azerbaijan had sponsored the team shirt of Atletico Madrid football club, sponsors the European football championship in France and last year hosted the first European Games.

Azerbaijan released several journalists and rights campaigners from prison this year but Rebecca Vincent, head of the Sport for Rights Campaign and a human rights activist said Mr Aliyev was trying to whitewash his government.

“Viewers should not be fooled. The smoke and mirrors distract from a more sinister truth,” she said. “A brutal human rights crackdown taking place behind the scenes.”

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

WWF suspends Kazakh athletes

JUNE 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The World Weightlifting Federation said four Kazakh athletes, Svetlana Podobedova, Maya Maneza, Zulfiya Chinshanlo and Ilya Ilyin, took performance-enhancing drugs at the 2012 London Olympic Games. All four athletes will now be suspended from global competition, including the Rio Olympics this summer. Mr Ilyin, twice Olympic gold medallist, said he was shocked by the news and denied having taken drugs. The ban will be a major blow to Kazakhstan’s medal hopes.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Kazakh sportsmen fail in drug test

JUNE 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Five Kazakh weightlifters have tested positive for taking banned drugs, Kazakhstan’s weightlifting association said. The names of the athletes who failed the tests have not been released although weightlifting websites speculated it could be Olympic champions Ilya Ilyin and Zulfiya Chinshanlo. The drug test failures and any subsequent bans would be a major blow to Kazakhstan’s hopes of winning medals at the Olympics in Brazil.

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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Georgian football team beats Spain

JUNE 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Just days ahead of the 2016 UEFA European Championship, the Georgian football team beat reigning champions Spain 1-0 in a friendly match in Getafe, near Madrid. In its 26-year history, the Georgian football team has never qualified for the top European tournament. The victory against Spain is the country’s highest achievement in football.

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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Kazakhstan cycling team wins the race

MAY 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Vincenzo Nibali, captain of the Kazakhstan-sponsored Astana Cycling Team, won the Giro d’Italia, one of the classic cycling races. Mr Nibali won after the race leader Giacomo Nizzolo was disqualified for irregular conduct. Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna sponsors and funds the Astana Team. Wearing the country’s light blue colours, Mr Nibali has also won the Tour de France in 2014 and another Giro in 2013.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Georgian breakaway region hosts football tournament for unrecognised states

MAY 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia is hosting a football tournament for regions which are not recognised as countries, a move that some critics have said is provocative.

The 10-day tournament will centre on Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia which lies on the Black Sea coast.

Only a handful of countries, including Russia, have recognised Abkhazia as an independent state. Abkhazia and South Ossetia split from Georgia in the early 1990s after the break-up of the Soviet Union, and declared full independence after a Georgia-Russia war in 2008.

And it’s an eclectic bunch of 12 ethnic groups, pseudo-states, wannabe-countries and historical-throwbacks that are competing at the so-called alternative World Cup.

Teams playing in the tournament include Raetia, a former province of the Roman Empire in central Europe, Iraqi Kurdistan and Somaliland.

Abkhazia, which opened with a 9-0 win over the Chagos Islands, is one of the favourites.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Georgia criticises UEFA

MAY 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s football association said it was disappointed that UEFA, Europe’s football governing body, voted to allow Kosovo, a Balkan country that broke away from Serbia in 2008, to become its 55th member. For Georgia, the issue of breakaway states being given any recognition is a sensitive one. It has two breakaway states — South Ossetia and Abkhazia — which are supported by Russia.

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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)