The Nomad Games Close Today on Issyk-Kul and Kazakhstan Have Been Ahead Since Midweek
Six days of horseback games, belt wrestling and eagle hunting end at the Cholpon-Ata hippodrome.
The sixth World Nomad Games close today in Cholpon-Ata, on the north shore of Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan. They opened in Bishkek on 31 August.
The programme is 21 competitive sports and ten demonstration events, 110 medals in all, grouped into horseback games, strength sports, skill games and strategy games. The archery alone drew entrants from 55 countries.
The signature event is kok-boru. Twelve riders a side fight over a headless goat carcass weighing between 30 and 33 kilograms and try to drop it into a stone well called a kazan. The Kazakh version, kokpar, is contested separately, which tells you most of what you need to know about how seriously the distinction is taken.
Also on the programme: audaryspak, wrestling on horseback; zhambu atu, archery from a galloping horse; alysh, belt wrestling; mas-wrestling, two people pulling on a stick; ordo, which involves throwing bones at other bones; toguz korgool, a board game; and hunting with golden eagles.
With two days left to run, Kazakhstan led on 25 golds to Kyrgyzstan's 23, though Kyrgyzstan had eleven more silvers. Ayash Kabdolaeva won the 70-metre archery for Kazakhstan at the age of 51. Kazakhstan took both tug-of-war titles, four-person and six-person.
The Games were founded here in 2014 and have since been to Turkey and to Kazakhstan. The seventh edition goes to Tatarstan in 2028. Reported delegation counts range from 89 to over 100 depending on who is counting.