Turkmen athletes won 11 medals – 2 gold, 3 silver and 6 bronze – at the VI World Nomad Games that ended in Kyrgyzstan.
Held every two years, this large-scale international forum, aimed at preserving, reviving and popularizing the ethnosports movement and the ethnocultural heritage of mankind, traditionally unites athletes from all over the world.
The initiator of the competition was the Kyrgyz Republic, which successfully hosted them in Cholpon Ata in 2014, 2016 and 2018. In 2021, the World Nomad Games rightfully joined the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, and then went beyond the borders of the founding country: the IV Games were held in 2022 in Iznik, Türkiye, and the V World Nomad Games in 2024 were hosted by the Kazakh city of Astana, bringing together about 2.5 thousand athletes from 89 countries competing in 21 sports.
The sixth ethnic sports festival was held at two venues in Kyrgyzstan at once: Bishkek, the capital, where the opening ceremony took place, and Cholpon Ata, which became the main competition arena. The VI Games set a record for the number of participants: 3000 athletes and representatives from 106 countries competed for awards in 43 disciplines. The national team of Turkmenistan was represented by 7 coaches and 14 athletes who competed in various disciplines of belt and national wrestling. The Turkmen team took the 7th place in the overall medal standings, and athletes from 29 countries won the awards.
The first gold of the Turkmen national team was brought by a soldier of the military unit № 20020 of the Ministry of defence of Turkmenistan, Annagurban Allaberdiyev (coach Nazardurdy Orazdurdyyev), who won a landslide victory in the Turkmen national wrestling goresh in the heavyweight category over 100 kg.
A significant contribution to the career of the team was made by performances in the Kyrgyz national wrestling alysh, which is distinguished by its division into freestyle, where kicking is allowed, and classical style, where it is prohibited. In Alysh, the national team won 4 medals: the highest award in freestyle (over 100 kg) was taken by Nurmuhammet Baydogdyyev, an instructor at the medical secondary vocational school named after Sachly Dursunova in Arkadag, and Abdyresul Durdyyev from the Belt Wrestling Federation of Turkmenistan (freestyle, up to 60 kg), an employee of the Ministry of internal affairs Sylapberdi Nuryyev (freestyle style, up to 80 kg) and 4th year student of the Turkmen state institute of architecture and construction Mekan Nurberdiyev (classical style, up to 80 kg). Mentors Shatlyk Myradov and Nuraly Lollikov were involved in the preparation of these prize-winners.
Another pupil of this coaching duo, Palvan Gurbangeldiyev from the Belt Wrestling Federation of Turkmenistan (over 100 kg), won a bronze medal in the traditional South Korean ssir wrestling, where wrestlers hold each other by the satpa belt wrapped around the waist and hips.
Turkmen wrestlers also performed successfully in the ancient Kyrgyz martial art Kyrgyz kurosh, in which athletes are allowed to release the belt with one hand for a short time during the fight. In this type of program, Atageldi Tejendurdyyev, a 5th-year student at the Turkmen state institute of physical education and sports (up to 84 kg), won bronze thanks to a spectacular throw at his opponent's shoulder blades, sharing this success with his coach Begmyrat Saparlyyev.
Four more athletes joined the list of bronze medalists of the tournament: military serviceman № 20020 Ylham Kemalov (over 100 kg, coach Dortguly Tejenov) in Uzbek kurash; 4th-year student of the International University of Oil and Gas named after Yagshygeldi Kakayev, Begli Hojammayev (over 100 kg, coach Azat Berdimyradov) in Tajik wrestling Gushtini Milli kamarbandi; soldier of military unit № 20020 Serdar Babamyradov (up to 60 kg) – in Kazakh Kureshy; as well as the instructor of the multifunctional sports complex of Arkadag Ziyamuhammet Saparov (over 100 kg) – in Gulesh, Azerbaijan. Babamyradov and Saparov train under Abdullah Berdiliyev.
The performance at the VI World Nomad Games demonstrated the tangible progress of the national team: at the previous Games in Astana, Turkmen athletes won 4 medals (1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze). Throughout the history of the World Nomad Games, athletes from Turkmenistan have won a total of 96 medals: 37 gold, 19 silver and 40 bronze.
The baton for the next, VII World Nomad Games in 2028 was officially handed over during the closing of the competition at the Cholpon-Ata racetrack – Kazan (Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation) will host the future competitions.
