The opening of the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games held in Konya, hosted by Turkey and attended by 4,200 athletes from 56 countries, was held with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, El.kz reports with reference to Committee for Sports and Physical Culture of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The solemn event was attended by President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Hussein Ibrahim Taha, as well as heads of government and ministers of a number of countries.
4,200 athletes from 56 countries take part in the competitions. The honor of Kazakhstan is represented by 125 athletes in 16 sports.
In the parade of national teams of athletes, the flag of the Republics of Kazakhstan was carried by the champion of Asia in fencing under 23 years old - Yerlik Sertai.
"I want to thank Kazakhstan and the sports community of our country for entrusting me with holding the flag at the opening ceremony. This is a great responsibility and honor for me. I hope that at the upcoming competitions we will show high results and justify the trust of our country," the standard-bearer said.
According to Aigul Bektenova, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Sports and Physical Culture, Chief of The Demissionion of our delegation, domestic athletes have high sports training.
"The opening ceremony took place today, and competitions in sports started on August 5. Currently, the national team ranks third in the team standings with 5 gold, 1 silver and 5 bronze medals. This is a good result, it is necessary to continue to keep the bar high. Our athletes came with excellent training," said Aigul Bakytzhanovna.
Earlier, our country took part in two Games of Islamic Solidarity, at the IV Games in 2017, 35 athletes in 7 sports performed as part of the Kazakhstan national team, as a result of which they won 2 gold, 5 silver and 12 bronze medals. Thus, according to the results, taking 14th place in the team standings.
The V Games of Islamic Solidarity were supposed to be held in 2021, but due to the pandemic they were postponed for 1 year.