21-year-old Master of Sport from Ashgabat Valentina Simakova ranked among six best athletes in the XIII Paralympics in Beijing. About 4,000 disabled sportsmen from 148 countries and regions compete for the medals of the world sport event. She gained the success in the under-75 kg category in the weightlifting tournament.

In the bench press in the first attempt V. Simakova lifted 90 kg and in the second attempt – 97.5 kg. She failed to lift 105 kg in the third attempt. Her result is better than that gained by the Kazakh weightlifter L. Salimjanova who ranked the seventh and lower than that gained by O. Kiseleva from Russia who ranked the fourth.

Two years ago Valentina Simakova ranked the second in the IX Summer Asian Games and made her debut at the Beijing Paralympics Games.

V. Simakova is a sportswoman of the Ashgabat Disabled Sport School. In 1999-2005 her coach was Honoured Coaches of Turkmenistan the brothers Yusif and Adyl Alievs. For the past two years V. Simakova is coached by Gajimet Ramazanov at the National Weightlifting Centre of Turkmenistan.