Kazakh skiers qualified in the sprint freestyle at the Olympic Games in Beijing. In this program, four athletes represented Kazakhstan including, Ksenia Shalygina, Angelina Shuryga, Irina Bykova and Nadezhda Stepashkina. To reach the quarterfinals, they needed to complete the qualifying round in the 30 strongest among 91 athletes. The best result from our team was shown by Nadezhda Stepashkina - she finished 51st. Angelina Shuryga came the 16th, Ksenia Shalygina - the 67th, and Irina Bykova - the 68th. The skiers of the Kazakh team didn’t manage to pass the qualification barrier.
“The track is quite heavy, the altitude is high, it's hard to breathe, but I like to compete here, the atmosphere is good, I will give my best, try to show a good result. We will try our best, the main thing is to have support, it helps a lot,” said Nadezhda Stepashkina, a skier.
Men also took to the track. Two Kazakh athletes competed to qualify for the quarterfinal of the men’s sprint free. Vitaly Pukhkalo finished 66th and Evgeny Velichko - 62nd.
“We need to constantly train. Go to the training camps, where there are tracks,” said Vitaliy Pukhkalo, a skier.
Meanwhile, speed skater Dmitry Morozov entered the top 20 at the Olympics. He passed a distance of 1,500 meters in one minute and 47 seconds. As a result, he took the 18th place. Now, the athlete will perform in the mass start. Kazakh biathletes also competed in the individual race. Vladislav Kireev showed a good result and entered the top 25. Alexander Mukhin - finished 52nd.
Translation by Aruzhan Bizhigitova
Editing by Saule Mukhamejanova
