At the Asian Games in Japan, the "bronze age" continues for the Kazakhstan national team. For the second day in a row, the team's tally has been replenished with only five bronze medals. Meanwhile, the opponents are not idle. In the unofficial medal standings, Uzbekistan has overtaken our athletes. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

On Saturday, rowers stepped onto the third step of the podium three times. All – in the 500-meter distance. The bronze medalists were kayakers Stella Sukhanova, Dmitry Kholmogorov, as well as Sergey Yemelyanov and Rufina Iskakova, who competed in the canoe double. The kayak double crew of Olga Shmeleva and Artyom Tereshchenko stopped one step away from the podium.

The women's team consisting of Arina Malinovskaya, Sofia Shulzhenko and Elizaveta Bezrukova won a bronze medal in the 50-meter small-bore rifle three positions event.

Fencers Artyom Sarkisyan, Nurmukhammed Zhailybay, Nazarbay Sattarkhan and Kuanysh Ergashbay became third in the team sabre tournament. For Sarkisyan, this is the second bronze of the current competitions.

The track and field athletes did not please. Naturalized Kenyan Shadrack Koech took 7th place in the marathon. Maria Shuvalova also finished seventh in the 400 meters. Ivan Ivanov became ninth in the shot put, and Ayana Bolatbekkyzy was tenth in the 1500 meters.

Weightlifter Beksultan Aitbay took seventh place in the up to 75 kg weight category.

Boxers Mahmud Sabyrkhan and Nurbek Oralbay advanced to the quarterfinals. Viktoria Grafeva, not without the help of the judges, lost to Olympic champion with disputed gender eligibility Lin Yu-ting.

The women's handball team, finishing their performances at the Asian Games, beat Uzbekistan. The water polo players, on the contrary, have just started in Japan. They lost the first match in Group A to the hosts.

After the seventh day of the Asian Games, the position of the leaders of the unofficial medal standings (China, Japan, South Korea) has not changed. In terms of the number of gold medals, Uzbekistan and Thailand have caught up with Kazakhstan. And our neighbors have even overtaken our athletes in silver reserves. Iran and Bahrain are just one gold behind the Kazakhstanis. It's time to end the "bronze age."

The XX Summer Asian Games in Japan officially opened on September 19. In the multi-sport competitions with athletes from 45 countries, 460 sets of medals are being awarded. 217 – among men, 204 – among women and 39 – in mixed categories. The Kazakhstan national team at the 2026 Asian Games will feature 558 athletes in 35 sports.

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