In 2007, the Turkmen sportsmen won 182 medals in the world sports arena, of them 71 are the gold medals, 47 – the silver medals and 64 – the bronze medals.

Not only the brilliant technique but also the good luck helped some of our athletes won the title or became the prize winners of the international tournaments for the first time in their sport careers. For example, Sergey Grigoriantz won the title at World Power Lifting Championships through his rivals’ errors. The international tournament was held in Orlando, the United States this autumn. Sergey knew that he would contest with the strongest sportsmen – the world and European champions and prize-winners. Our debutant had not expected to win his laurels in the competitions. Though, having overestimated their abilities his rivals ‘helped’ him to win the title.

13-year-old Graeco-Roman wrestler Arslan Orashev from Ashgabat had to fight against the rivals and his excitement. In spite of the young age he is an experienced sportsman. The year 2007 brought the young Turkmen wrestler the gold medals of two international tournaments, which had been held in Podolsk and Zelenograd, Russia.

Diligence and firmness of purpose helped Gulnar Khayitbaeva, a sportswoman from Lebap, to achieve the remarkable results. She won the gold medal at the World Sambo Championships in Tashkent this summer.

Among the Turkmen sportswomen’s accomplishments the one gained by 20-year-old Amangul Durdieva from Balkanabat is most remarkable. She defeated a host of the tournament Patricia Breen in the final of the World Draughts Championships and won the world title.

Our athletes won 35 medals at the World Special Olympic Games in Shanghai. The Turkmen sportsmen gained the remarkable achievements in the tennis, table tennis, swimming, track athletics and power lifting tournaments. Merdan Kadyrov and Guljan Sula from Turkmenabat achieved the best results: they won 4 gold medals in the power lifting tournaments. Anton Solovey won two gold medals and the silver medal in the table tennis tournament. Olga Pankova and Nazar Khudaynazarov won the gold medal and the silver medal respectively in the individual tournament and the silver medal in the pair tournament.

The Turkmen footballers, who had broken through in the second qualification tournament of the 2010 World Cup, gladdened us!

Our fans, who always support and cheer for the Turkmen sportsmen whichever tournaments they compete in, contributed profoundly to our sportsmen’s remarkable achievements.