Sport

The region occupies a considerable area in the sport life of the republic. Sports in Eastern Kazakhstan have some of the best traditions in the country; great skill and popularity are its main characteristics. There are about 70 kinds of sports which are practiced in our region, among them 27 which are played in the Olympic Games. The most popular kinds of sports are football, volleyball, basketball, skiing, different kinds of wrestling, athletics, and table tennis.

Today 122 athletes in 17 different sports from Eastern Kazakhstan are on the main representative team for the republic. Twenty six athletes from our region are on the national teams for the republic, among them six participating in cross-country skiing, four in downhill skiing, two in ice-skating, two in freestyle skiing, as well as those competing in judo, canoe-paddling, fencing, and acrobatics. About 1,290 sportsmen are on our representative reserve team.

The XVIII Winter Olympic Games in Nagano was the most important moment in Kazakhstan's sporting history. Twenty eight athletes from East Kazakhstan participated in that great event.

A ski-runner of the international class, Oksana Yatskaya, was among the ten best ski-runners of the planet having won the 5 km distance race in the Olympic Games in Nagano.

Winter Olympic games in Tourine

Sportsmen from East Kazakhstan – skiers M. Odnovortsev and S. Malakhova showed good results in Tourine Winter Olympic Games . Maksim took the ninth place on 30km. distance in duatlone. He got behind for only 8,8 second from the leader. In the history of skiing sport M. Odnovortsev is the second representative of Kazakhstan, who has got into the 10 leaders of Winter Olympic games. Only V. Smirnov had managed to reach such results as a member of Soviet Union team.

The skate-runner, Sergei Tsibenko, became a champion of Asia having broken five national records and two from the CIS. He has been entered on the list of the ten best skaters of the planet.

The football teams "Elimai" and "Vostok" are very famous among the football fans of the region.

Today the best athletes in acrobatics, boxing, judo, rowing, arm wrestling, and fencing are training for competitions in the highest divisions.

And we take great pride in the hockey team of Ust-Kamenogorsk, the Torpedoes, which forced many people to hear and remember the name of our city.

The sport world cannot but be surprised at the phenomenon of the hockey in Ust-Kamenogorsk. There is a popular opinion that argues a simple school team will never reach the high Olympic class. But the hockey-team of Ust-Kamenogorsk has done just that. The Torpedoes are a unique team; they have always consisted of players from our own school, never professionals.

The team first appeared more than forty years ago, and all at once it has become the champion of the republic.

Since the 1980s The Torpedoes have been constantly improving their style of playing regardless of their newfound fame. Since the 1980s, all of their victories over such hockey-clubs as "TSKA," "Dinamo," and "Spartak" (the most famous Russian hockey-teams) came as no surprise for the world of hockey in the CIS. Since 1987 the Torpedoes have been in the highest league. Since 1993 the team has taken part in the playoffs for the International Hockey League, and they have reached the final eight twice.

Today there are players from the Worldwide Winter Games, players who competed in the championships of Russia and the CIS, and participants of the world championships from division "A". The team has played four times in the finals for the European Cup games.

In the 1990s the hockey of Ust-Kamenogorsk, which is the foundation for all hockey in Kazakhstan, discovered a new epoque in its history having started to play in elite world hockey games. The Winter Olympic Games were a special moment for our representative team. We were the fifth having left behind the American, the Swedish and the Slovakian teams. There is no other team like our Torpedoes.

Many players of our team play for different world clubs. Nowadays, our hockey, after a long "run of bad luck" is on rise again.

Ust-Kamenogorsk hockey team is supported by "Kazzink". Also, it is supported by the government. The question about "Torpedo's" participation at high league of Russian championship was settled on a high, presidential level.

Kazakhstani hockey tournament winner, champion of the first league of "Sibir-Dalni Vostok" zone, "Kazzink-Torpedo" team will play in high, professional league of Russia!>