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  • ‘This sport is hard’… Benoit Saint-Denis breaks his silence on doctor’s stoppage defeat in front of home crowd at UFC Paris

    ‘This sport is hard’… Benoit Saint-Denis breaks his silence on doctor’s stoppage defeat in front of home crowd at UFC Paris

    After a tough opening round in the main event of UFC Fight Night: Paris, former French special forces operative Benoit Saint-Denis appeared to be seeing some success on the feet in the second, before he failed to see anything at all.

    On the advice of the ringside physician, the highly anticipated main event fight was sadly, but understandably, waved off as the doctors became concerned that the already significant swelling suffered by Benoit Saint-Denis could be hiding some more severe injuries.

    Benoit Saint Denis of France reacts after a TKO loss against Renato Moicano of Brazil in a lightweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at Th...
    Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

    Benoit Saint-Denis reacts to doctor’s stoppage loss in UFC Paris main event

    After dragging the ‘God of War’ to the ground, Renato ‘Money’ Moicano kept busy as he landed brutal elbows and punches from the top position; with several particularly vicious strikes landing around both eyes of the Frenchman throughout the opening round.

    Despite all three judges scoring the second for Saint-Denis, they couldn’t do anything as the fight was taken out of their hands: with the swelling around his eyes being too severe for the UFC doctors to allow the fight to continue.

    Speaking to Michael Bisping in the octagon following the fight being waved off, an understandably emotional Benoit Saint-Denis thanked the Paris faithful for their unwavering support as he noted that he felt ‘sleepy’ in the opening round.

    “A big thank you to everyone for your support, it was absolutely unbelievable to be here… Unfortunately, in that first round I came out and I was a little bit sleepy, and it allowed him to do enough damage to then play the Matador in the later rounds so I’m sorry for that.”

    The ‘God of War’ promised the Parisian crowd that he’d be back “stronger” next time around and that whilst he’s “sorry for that performance, I was proud to represent the flag.”

    Saint-Denis has now taken to social media to once again thank his fanbase, and to acknowledge that injuries like those he suffered in Paris last night are simply part and parcel of the sport.

    “Not my day, this sport is hard but amazing,” he wrote via his Instagram page.

    “Thank you all for your unwavering support. Proud to represent France in the octagon at home. Respect to my opponent for facing me at home and congratulations to him.

    “God puts challenges in our path and this one is nothing compared to what I’ve experienced.”

    Given the severity of the swelling, Saint-Denis will likely be out of action until early 2025 but when the ‘God of War’ does decide to return to the battlefield, he could do so with Moicano in support.

    Renato Moicano invites Benoit Saint-Denis to train with him for next fight

    Whilst Moicano is known for being one of the best trash-talkers in the game, the fan-favorite Brazilian would also show respect to Saint-Denis for fighting through such nasty-looking injuries at the post-fight press conference.

    “I will be honest with you, I really respect Benoit Saint-Denis [because] what he did in this division – I think he’s very strong, he’s young but I think he needs to work on his game because usually, what makes him dangerous is what makes him vulnerable.

    “He puts so much pressure on, if he touches you, he’s going to break you; but if he cannot touch you, it’s easy to see [strikes coming] and watching his fights, the way he stands up and swipes fighters always going 100%.”

    Moicano stated that the fight in Paris went exactly how he and his team planned and even invited Benoit Saint-Denis to train with him for his next fight, whenever that may be.

    “I was talking to my coach about once I got this guy down, he’s going do everything to swipe me and he’s going to gas out and that’s what happened.

    “I invite Benoit Saint-Denis to my gym to train with us and I guarantee he’s going to be another fighter; he needs to get out of his comfort zone in my opinion but he’s a great fighter.”

    Moicano currently trains out of American Top Team alongside the likes of possible future opponent Mateusz Gamrot, as well as the likes of Jorge Masvidal, Alexandre Pantoja, and even Saint-Denis’ former opponent Dustin Poirier.

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  • Peru’s football stadium is the highest above sea level putting players at serious risk | Football | Sport

    Peru’s football stadium is the highest above sea level putting players at serious risk | Football | Sport

    The game of football is certainly not for the fainthearted particularly when it comes to playing at high altitudes.

    One sports stadium that sparks the fear in any seasoned professional player is Peru’s Daniel Alcides Carrion Stadium.

    The grounds are the highest altitude football stadium in the world.

    It sits at an almight 4,378m above sea level which significantly increases the risk of a number of serious health conditions for anyone playing sports there.

    Playing any kind of sports at such a high altitude puts players at risk of an increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure and hypoxia, among many others.

    Daniel Alcides Carrion Stadium can be found in the Peruvian city of Cerro del Pasco and is officially the highest altitude stadium on Earth.

    It holds around 8,000 people and has caused much controversy in the past for players who aren’t used to playing at such high heights.

    Issues with oxygen are commonplace which begins to drop, sitting lower than many football players would’ve ever faced before.

    This jaw-dropping height means fatigue sets in much quicker as players struggle to breath.

    As such, the stadium only hosts Peru Cup matches on an international level only a few times a year but does belong to a team of the Peruvian league known as Union Minas.

    Union Minas are in the third division of the league and known for having one of the world’s toughest away days.

    At 4,378m above sea level it’s so high that it would take over 14 Shard’s stacked on top of each other to make it the same height.

    The highest altitude above sea level is Mount Everest at 8,848m which is only twice as much as Daniel Alcides Carrion Stadium further highlighting how dangerous it can be for players.

    As such, FIFA banned games at stadiums which sat anywhere higher than 2,500m above sea level back in 2007 which sparked major controversy.

    FIFA explained the cause for the ban was due to home teams having an ‘unfair advantage’ and for issues regarding players safety.

    Countries including Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia were up in arms about this decision as it meant they were unable to host World Cup qualifiers in their own capital cities.

    Football icon, Diego Maradona felt so strongly about this ban that he chose to play a match at the Hernando Siles stadium in La Paz.

    He wanted to prove that if a 47-year-old was able to play for over an hour at such high altitudes then it was certainly feasible for younger professionals to do so too.

    The ban on high altitudes was then revoked in 2008 with FIFA allowing teams to play at their preferred grounds.

    The ban on high altitude grounds was later revoked in May 2008, and FIFA has since allowed teams to return to their preferred playing ground.

    Interestingly, a study published in the National Library of Medicine, found that teams that were both training and playing at high altitude had a 28 per cent decreased concussion rate.

    It concluded that playing at higher altitudes may have a protective effect on concussion rates.

    Despite the decreased concussion rates at higher altitudes a lack of oxygen was certainly evident when Argentina’s World Cup team were seen using oxygen tubes during the match against Bolivia.

    Alongside Argentina, Brazilian footballers were also seen using huge tanks of oxygen while battling through their international matches in South America.

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  • Tauihi basketball’s ambition means women’s sport takes flight – Alice Soper

    Tauihi basketball’s ambition means women’s sport takes flight – Alice Soper

    AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.

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  • Earn $100 daily for 10 days with college football & NFL, any sport this weekend

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  • Inline hockey teams make history in Italy  – Sport

    Inline hockey teams make history in Italy  – Sport

    Namibia’s senior men’s inline hockey team arrived back home on Wednesday after creating history at the Inline Hockey World Championships in Roccaraso, Italy.

    They achieved their highest ever result by finishing fourth amongst the world’s leading inline hockey nations, while their success capped Namibia’s best ever overall performance at the world championships, with the junior women finishing third, the senior women fifth, and the junior men seventh.

    National coach Nadia Schmidt, who was assisted by Trevor Cormack, said it was a huge achievement. 

    “This was only the second time that Namibia had sent four teams to the World Skate Games and incredibly getting all four teams into the top eight for the first time was a huge achievement,” she said.

    “The atmosphere and mentality in the Namibian camp was great, and all the teams performed above expectations and their rankings. The junior women’s bronze medal and the senior men’s fourth place have now also ensured that they qualify for the 2025 World Games in China,” she added.

    It was the best that Namibia’s senior men’s team had ever done at the biennial Inline Hockey World Championships, which forms part of the World Skate Games, and was a big improvement on their previous best performance when they came tenth at the 2021 world championships in Italy.

    Namibia’s overall performances underlined their consistency against the best teams in the world at major international tournaments in recent years.

    At the previous world championships in Argentina two years ago, Namibia’s junior women’s team won the gold medal, while the junior men came fourth, and at last year’s European Championships in Charleroi, Belgium, where Namibia competed on invitation, the junior women came second, the senior women third, and the junior men fifth. 

    In Roccaraso, Namibia’s senior men’s team was only ranked 21st in the world going into the tournament, but they produced some major upsets as they progressed to the semifinals.

    They started off with an emphatic 19-1 victory against China, before beating Switzerland 3-1 to book a place in the last 16. Here they caused a major upset by beating third-ranked France 5-4, with Valerik Hilbert scoring the winning goal in extra time.

    In the quarterfinals, they came up against Sweden and in another close encounter, Hilbert once again scored the winner two minutes from time to give Namibia a 2-1 victory. 

    In the semifinals Namibia came up against the top-ranked team at the tournament, the Czech Republic, and gave a good account of themselves but eventually lost 5-2.

    After the Czech Republic took the lead, Amandus Röttcher equalised for Namibia, but they then conceded two goals to head into a half time with a 3-1 deficit. 

    The Czech Republic sealed the match with two more goals before Johannes Coetzee scored a late consolation goal for Namibia.

    That put Namibia through to the bronze medal play-off match against Italy, where the hosts took an early 2-0 lead. Coetzee reduced the deficit with Namibia’s opening goal, but Italy immediately increased their lead to go into halftime 3-1 ahead.

    In a tense second half both teams had penalties, but neither could capitalise as Italy went on to win the match 3-1 to claim the bronze medal.

    Schmidt said the future looked bright for Namibian inline hockey. 

    “The performances of all four teams bodes well for the future of Namibia Inline Hockey and gives future inline players a platform to aspire to in playing at a world class level. With all four teams ending in the Top 8 rankings, they have now all secured Top 16 spots for the next World Skate Games in 2026,” she said.

    Schmidt also thanked Spar Namibia for their support. 

    “We sincerely would like to thank Spar, proud sponsors of Namibia inline hockey, who made it possible for all four teams to travel and compete at the World Skate Games in Roccaraso, Italy.”

    Stay informed with The Namibian – your source for credible journalism. Get in-depth reporting and opinions for
    only N$85 a month. Invest in journalism, invest in democracy –
    Subscribe Now!

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  • Recalling Adele’s Olympics Stunt, Track and Field Icons Opine How Athlos Can Revolutionize the Sport

    Recalling Adele’s Olympics Stunt, Track and Field Icons Opine How Athlos Can Revolutionize the Sport

    After months of buzzing anticipation, Alexis Ohanian’s brainchild, Athlos, is finally here—bringing a fresh wave of excitement to track and field. Athlos isn’t your run-of-the-mill track competition. Instead of walking away with shiny medals, athletes will cash in big prize money. Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, is betting big on women’s sports with leading lady Gabby Thomas—and honestly, it feels like the perfect time. Women’s sports are getting the spotlight they deserve. Just look at the WNBA—this season, they’re racking up viewership like never before, with 2.2 million tuning in for the Indiana Fever vs. Seattle Storm game on ABC. In-person attendance is up 14% from last year, too!

    Ohanian isn’t just making headlines; he’s making smart business moves. His NWSL team, Angel City FC, hit a $250 million valuation, and now he’s eyeing track and field as the next big opportunity. With Athlos, Ohanian is aiming to revolutionize how people view women’s sports. But Alexis isn’t doing it alone. From him to track legend Michael Johnson, there’s a growing wave of support. A bold shoutout from singer Adele during her concert also helped bring the spotlight onto the women’s track, earning praise from icons in the sport.

    Athlos can bring a revolution, as proved by Adele

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    On the 25th September episode of the Ready Set Go podcast, Justin Gatlin and Rodney Green talked about how Athlos could bring a change in track and field. Gatlin talked about how he respects the tournament for what it stands for. He believes that women in sports don’t get similar entertainment facilities as men do during sports events. For example, there was a light show before the 100-meter final at the Paris Olympics. However, there was no such thing before the women’s event.

    He said, “To be honest, I feel track and field women lead the charge in that, because we’re really one of the true sports that kind of create an even playing field, where a woman can be able to take the reign and hold the excitement of all of track and field.” He cited the example of the Adele concert.

    On August 3rd, Grammy award-winning singer Adele was performing in Munich while the 100m women’s final was taking place in Paris. The ‘Rolling in the Deep’ singer decided to pause her concert and broadcast the whole 11-second race for the entire crowd as Julien Alfred went on to win the gold medal against Sha’Carri Richardson. Justin Gatlin praised the singer for this and said that it introduced track and field to a new crowd.

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    The track legend said, “They probably never saw track and field in their life. But everyone who was there to watch Adele when she put it on the entire crowd was silent. They all watched.” After the broadcast, the British singer told the crowd to applaud Julien Alfred for her fantastic performance and went forward with the show. This showed how much she loved track and field. It also showed the potential female athleticism holds and how big it can be. Thus, it is one of the main reasons why Athlos can bring revolution to the sport.

    What perks await the women in track and field?

    New York City will experience something completely new on the 26th of September with Athlos. Alexis Ohanian’s event is the first of its kind as it is an all-female competition. The competition has big names like Gabby Thomas, who won three Olympic gold medals in Paris; Faith Kipyeong; Alexis Holmes; Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith; and numerous others. In total, Athlos will have six categories of races with the 100m hurdling, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, and 1500m.

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    Plus, the event’s not just about the races—Megan Thee Stallion and DJ D-Nice will be performing, making it a full-on spectacle. Imagine six thrilling races paired with a concert! Spectators are in for a treat. Athletes are too, with a $60,000 prize pool and 10% of the event’s revenue being distributed to them. Even better?

    The meet will be broadcast live on ESPN+, YouTube, DAZN, and X/Twitter—a rare level of exposure for track in the U.S., where it can feel harder to find than the athletes themselves. It’s shaping up to be the next best thing in track and field since the Paris Olympics, with the potential to transform the sport forever.

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  • Sport provides students with opportunities

    Sport provides students with opportunities

    Secondary school sport means different things to different people. The Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association talks to two Otago students about their sporting experiences.

    Laney Whitson

    Otago Girls’ High School

    Year 13 student Laney Whitson is coming to the end of her school years at Otago Girls’. Throughout her five years here, she has participated in a range of sports — football, volleyball, touch and cricket — both competitively and socially.

    Laney found that playing sport enabled her to interact with different year levels at school and meet students from year 9 through to year 13, which opened a different circle of friends.

    When Laney was a year 9-10 student, she interacted with senior students in her sporting groups, and this enabled her to gain maturity and responsibility to turn up to training sessions and to games. She is thankful for this as it carved the pathway through to her senior years with sport at OGHS.

    Laney’s major sport in her senior years has been football. As well as playing in the senior team at OGHS for several years, she has been chosen in Southern Football representative teams. This year, she has been named as a member of the Southern United under-18 team.

    Laney’s most outstanding achievement to date has been her selection into the New Zealand Māori team. Last year she was named captain, and she was chosen in the team again for 2024.

    Laney is sad to be finishing her school sport as it has been a big part of her life for the past five years. It has taught her many life lessons to take with her on the next part of her journey outside high school.

    Caleb Darling

    Roxburgh Area School

    Sports: Rugby, basketball, golf, cricket, touch, volleyball.

    Personal value of school sport: Through sport, I have learned key skills such as commitment, discipline and determination. These skills have helped me to achieve my top rugby goal, which was to make the New Zealand Area Schools Barbarians team this year.

    I have developed social skills through learning how to communicate with a variety of people, within the school and wider community. School sport has also allowed me to discover myself not only as a sportsperson but as an individual.

    What it means to be involved in school sport: I am grateful to Roxburgh Area School for offering so many sporting opportunities, some of which I might not have been able to do had I attended another school. These opportunities have allowed me to take on various leadership roles within our school and have also allowed me to give back some of the things I have learned, through coaching.

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  • bet365 bonus code POSTNEWS grants $200 in bonus bets or $1,000 first bet safety net for any sport, including NFL

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  • Finn Russell’s dream dinner guests and the sport closest to his rugby style : Planet Rugby

    Finn Russell’s dream dinner guests and the sport closest to his rugby style : Planet Rugby

    Finn Russell is on the golf course, his ball nestled in the second cut, a line of trees obscuring his view to the green.

    The Scotland and Lions rugby star surveys the scene, shakes his head and breaks into a grin. What follows tells us everything about his approach to the sport he is rather better known for.

    “I see a tiny gap, I think I can go for it,” he says. “I know it’s probably not going to happen but I’m going to have a go. That’s the way I am.”

    Russell was born 50 miles from St Andrews, the home of golf, and is brother-in-law to Ewen Ferguson, a three-time winner on the DP World Tour.

    His day job is to steer teams from set-piece to try-line, rugby’s equivalent of tee to pin. Over a decade he has a built a reputation as one of the world’s most exciting playmakers.

    His high-risk high-reward tendencies make him a maverick, but also the best paid player in the Gallagher Premiership, which kicks off on Friday with his Bath team hosting Northampton in a repeat of last season’s final.

    To better understand what makes him tick, Russell agreed to be grilled on life away from the field. The tell-tale clues Planet Rugby sought were to be found on the golf course and in his choice of sporting dinner guests.

    Loves the creative side of golf

    “I’m not a great golfer, I’d say mid-teens (handicap), but when I play I like that creative side, to try to manufacture a shot,” he explains. “In a tough position you have to see a way out of it, create a shot. That appeals to me.

    “Take for example a long par four, a really tough one. You can either lay up or go for it. I’m going to go for it.

    “The risk-reward is probably not worth it but if it does come off it’s going to be brilliant and everyone is going to think you’re a great golfer, even if you’re 50 over at the time.

    “So for me, that one good shot, it’s worth it. A memory for a lifetime!”

    Russell says he has played only twice this year, both times with team-mate Will Muir. The first time he was four-over through the first nine and 14-over coming home. The next five and 12 over respectively.

    “A few holes wreck it,” admits the 31-year old. “In rugby I’ve got more control of the ball because I’ve done it for longer. In golf, I can see the shot, I just can’t always execute it.

    “I’ll try something then I’ll duff it one yard. I’ll try and play as if I’m a scratch golfer, try and shape my shots, put spin on, but half the time it’s luck. There’s always that risk of messing it up.”

    He has had those moments on a rugby field too, but not for a while now. Scotland have won their last four matches against England, lost only once to the auld enemy in seven and roamed unbeaten at Twickenham since 2017.

    Domestically, Bath’s million pound (a season) man took his underachieving club to the Grand Final last season and, despite playing a man down for almost all the game, came within a whisker of beating Northampton.

    Russell is now father to two daughters and that responsibility, allied to the expectation which comes with his senior leadership position at Bath, has mellowed him in some respects.

    League great reveals ‘massive dream’ to coach England after coming ‘close’ under Eddie Jones

    But ask him for the sporting company he would most like to keep and the twinkle returns to his eye.

    “Usain Bolt,” he says, without hesitation. “The greatest ever, yes, but he has a good character to go with it. That counts for me.

    ‘You’ve got to have a bit of personality’

    “If you’re dead boring, yeah you can be fast, but no-one’s going to want to talk to you just because of that. You’ve got to have a bit of personality. Like Noah Lyles. He talked the talk then won the Olympic 100m.

    “Who else? Andy Murray. I don’t know him that well, though my dad used to play badminton with his mum. Obviously, Andy is a great player and he also makes me laugh off the court. He doesn’t even like tennis now, he says!

    “One more would be Tiger Woods. Because he’s come back from a lot. I’ve been in tough positions before in rugby but Tiger.. fair play!”

    Reflecting on how far he has come in his sporting career reminds Russell of another golfing episode in his life.

    It took place in Scotland back in 2011 while the Rugby World Cup was going on in his absence down in New Zealand.

    Russell was then an apprentice stone mason and was working on one of the big houses overlooking the Queen’s course at Gleneagles.

    “I used to go into this bush over the back wall and find loads of golf balls and bring them home,” he says.

    The next time he was at Gleneagles was to play the Queen’s course. “I walked by that same house and that same bush and I was thinking how different my life is.”

    All of which might give the impression Russell would be satisfied were his career to end tomorrow. That is not the case.

    One club trophy, with Glasgow in 2015, is not enough. Nor are his two Lions experiences – one as a temporary stand-in in New Zealand, the other played out in empty stadiums in South Africa four years ago.

    “It’s a big ambition to play a Lions tour in front of fans,” he says. “Having done 10 days in 2017 then 2021 in Covid year, it’s made me desperate to get on the next tour for the full Lions experience.

    “As for Bath, losing the final was disappointing but doing so well with 14 men gives us a springboard into this season. When we came off it didn’t really feel like we had lost.

    “That has given us a good starting point for this season. We’ve come back in with the right mindset. Mentally we are in a good place, hungry for it all to start.”

    Tune into TNT Sports to enjoy all the best that live sport has to offer this season. TNT Sports is available through its streaming destination discovery+ and across all major TV platforms. Only sport can do this. For more info visit: tntsports.co.uk.

    READ MORE: Stuart Hogg arrested for a THIRD time this year shortly before court appearance

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  • World Nomad Games put the spotlight on the sport of the Great Steppe | Arts and Culture News

    World Nomad Games put the spotlight on the sport of the Great Steppe | Arts and Culture News

    Astana, Kazakhstan – Clouds of dust rise from the sandy ground of a playing field as a dozen horses converge, their riders standing in their stirrups as they direct their mounts towards an odd target: the headless and disembowelled carcass of a goat laying in the dust.

    From what appears as a multi-legged, rotating creature of hooves, tails, heads and human fists, one rider manages to lift and hoist the carcass beneath his leg, dashing towards the goal with two teams of seven horsemen chasing him from all sides – some to protect him, others to thwart him, whatever the cost. The risk of broken fingers and jaws is all too real.

    This is not a movie but a game of kokpar, a horseback sport known and played across Central Asia, and a thrilling climax to this year’s edition of the Fifth World Nomad Games that concluded on September 13.

    Held in the futuristic Kazakh capital of Astana, the fifth edition of the World Nomad Games is a celebration of the sport, culture and unity of the nomadic peoples of Asia’s Turkic nations.

    The bi-annual event started 10 years ago in Cholpon Ata in Kyrgyzstan, with 30 countries participating, after former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev suggested the games would be a good way to showcase the region’s culture in an era of fast-paced globalisation.

    “We are the descendants of wise and brave nomads who were able to preserve their unique identity and gave us the civilisation of the Great Steppe,” Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said at the grand opening of the games on September 8. “Our common duty is to cherish this sacred heritage and to pass it on to future generations.”

    Three archers competing in the Nomad Games. They sre wearing traditional clothing. One is looking at the camera.
    Competitors in the traditional archery competition in Astana [Kit Yeng Chan/Al Jazeera[

    Tokayev also addressed the suffering in other parts of the world, especially in Gaza, while emphasising the games’ role in strengthening friendships among nations, much in the same way as the recently concluded Olympics.

    In the same way that France used the Olympics to showcase Paris and French culture to the world, so Kazakhstan used its first time hosting the World Nomad Games to showcase the origins of the Kazakh steppes, symbolising the peaceful interconnections of past nomadic empires beneath a traditional nomadic yurt.

    ‘Three games of men’

    This year’s event, the first held in Kazakhstan, was possibly the largest to date, featuring more than 2,000 athletes from 89 countries ranging from Angola to Argentina, Hungary to Sweden, and Turkmenistan to Zimbabwe.

    They all came together to participate in 21 traditional games that have their roots in the “three games of men” (archery, wrestling and horse racing), which testify to the skills of the peoples who ruled the steppes of inner Asia for thousands of years, from Silk Road traders to the Golden Horde that preceded the 15th century Kazakh Khanate.

    Besides kokpar, some of the most interesting games were audaryspak, a horseback wrestling competition where a sportsman must wrestle his opponent from his horse, and kusbegilik, a hunting game with birds of prey (majestic golden eagles, falcons and hawks) whose flight speed is assessed by launching them on a lure or counting how long it takes the bird to reach a bait in its owner’s hand.

    A man with his falcon
    A falcon and his master during the kusbegilik bird of prey flying competition [Kit Yeng Chan/Al Jazeera]

    There were also several different styles of wrestling, such as the local Qazak Quresi and Kurash, entirely performed in standing position, as well as the Powerful Nomad Strongman Competition, which included weight lifting, javelin throwing challenges and pulling a 200kg (440-pound) bullock cart by naked hand and muscle.

    The games also went beyond sport to include strategy such as Togyzkumalak, a board game in which a player wins by collecting the highest number of stones, and live performances of aitys, Kazakh and Kyrgyz folk-orientated improvised music and poetry duels which became part of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2015.

    Kazakhstan won the games with a total of 112 medals, including 43 golds, followed by Kyrgyzstan with 65 medals and Russia with 49, but there were plenty of surprises.

    Betty Vuk, an Italian female judo fighter and member of Italy’s Qazak Quresi Foundation, secured Italy’s only gold medal, and first in the Nomad Games, in traditional Kazakh wrestling.

    Other winning nations included Hungary – which won eight medals, including one gold, surpassing Turkey, India, China and Turkmenistan – and Romania, Poland, Moldova, France and Australia, underlining the growing appeal of traditional Central Asian games and martial arts around the world.

    While the 2026 edition will return to Kyrgyzstan, future games could take place far beyond the steppe.

    “Maybe in 2030 or 2032, it’ll be possible to host the World Nomad Games in North America because we have common ground there. […] Our geography should expand and become a world project with wider attention,” Kazakhstan’s vice-minister of Tourism and Sports, Zharasbayev Serik Maratovich told the media. “We want to popularise our games and ask anyone to help spread the word.”

    Two men wrestling on horseback
    Kyrgyz and US athletes compete in audaryspak or horseback wrestling [Kit Yeng Chan/Al Jazeera]

    Back on the kokpar field, the goat was made of rubber, but a dead animal is the norm in a sport that has slightly different rules and names depending on where it is played.

    It was Kazakhstan that emerged as the eventual winners of the kokpar tournament, taking home the gold ahead of Kyrgyzstan.

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