Umurbek Bazarbaev, a student of the National Institute for Sports and Tourism ranks among the five strongest weightlifters in under-62 kg category in the 79th World Men’s Championship in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The sportsmen from 79 countries worldwide participated in the 2008 Olympic qualification tournaments. The number of the sportsmen, who would participate in the Olympic Games, depends on the place they would take in the team events summed by the results of the two last world championships: in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic in 2006 and in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2007. Through calculating the sportsmen from 27 countries will participate in the Olympic Games: six sportsmen from each of the first six countries, 5 sportsmen from each of the following seven countries, 4 sportsmen from each of the countries ranking the 14th-20th in the tournament and 3 sportsmen from each of the countries ranking the 21st-27th in the tournament.

The trainers of the Turkmen team set the high hopes on Umurbek Bazarbaev, the 2004 World Student Champion, the bronze-medal winner of the 2004 Asian Championship, a participant of the Olympic Games in Sydney and Athens in 2000 and 2004, the Asian Games in Pusan, Korea and Doha, Qatar in 2002 and 2006.

47 sportsmen from 35 countries competed for the title in under-62 kg category. The leader of the Turkmen national team trained by Chief Coach of the Turkmen team Ikram Matkarimov Bazarabev ranked the fifth in clean and jerk and in the double-event. He held the national record having lifted 294 kg.

the bronze winner of the 2006 World Championship from Columbia lifted 295 kg and ranked the fourth in the tournament, the Bulgarian weightlifter lifted 301 kg and ranked the third, the representatives of the Korean Democratic People's Republic and China lifted 315 kg each and won the silver and the gold medals respectively.

21-year-old International Master of Sports and the silver-medal winner of the 2004 World Student Championship Tolkunbek Khudaibergenov lifted 276 kg and ranked the 18th at the tournament and a 25-year-old student of the National Institute of Sports and Tourism Mansur Rejepov ranked the 22nd.

The Turkmen weightlifters ranked the 27th in the team event. Last year they ranked the 37th at the World Championship in Santo Domingo. Summing up the results of two world championships the Turkmen team ranked the 29th. They lacked 18 points to be qualified for the Olympic Games.

The sportsmen qualified for the Olympic Games will be known through the results of the doping control and the 2008 Asian Championship in Japan. The Turkmen sportsmen have to take the first or the second places at the championship to be qualified for the Olympic Games. Otherwise only Umurbek Bazarbaev ranking among the five strongest weightlifters in under-62 kg category in the world will gain the right to participate in the 2008 Olympic Games. Chairman of the National Heavy Athletics Center Artur Emirian said that the qualification for the Olympic Games would come into force on June 1, 2008.