Tankay and Matyakubov shined in Astana

Kazakhstan’s Yerassyl Tankay and Turkmenistan’s Azizbek Matyakubov won their contests easily in the evening session of ASBC Asian U22 & Youth Boxing Championships on Day2.

Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, Timor Leste, Chinese Taipei, India, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam are the participating 25 countries in Astana.

Altogether 130 female and 267 male boxers from all regions of Asia will compete for the 50 gold medals in the championship.

Kazakhstan’s Yerassyl Tankay was member of the youth national team in 2019 and he spends his last year among the U22 boxers. His younger opponent, Kyrgyzstan’s 19-year-old Askatbek Chomonov had a brave attempt in the first round to surprise Tankay but the local boxer switched into a higher rhythm and eliminated his neighbour in Astana.

Turkmenistan’s Azizbek Matyakubov is not an experienced boxer in the international competitions yet but he had the attacking style to keep the control against Palestine’s Tamer Turjaman at the light welterweight (63.5kg). The Palestinian had also a few good shots but his footwork was not matched to avoid Matyakubov’s heavy jabs today.  

Jandos Askhar has Kazakh ethnic origins and he felt the support in Astana from the local crowd in his welterweight (67kg) preliminary bout against Philippines’ Norlan Petecio. The Filipino received a warning in the first round and Askhar won their contest despite his injury in the second.

Uzbekistan’s Murodbek Bakhriddinov looked in trouble in the start of the preliminary bout against Turkmenistan’s Muhammet Babayev who competed at the 2023 Men’s Elite World Boxing Championships as well. Both boxers had very similar technical and tactical boxing knowledge and surprisingly the Uzbek’s final round was enough to win this tight bout.