The majority of Tajik sportsmen who qualified for the 2012 London Olympics have good chances to be among prize winners, a well-known Tajik sport commentator and head of the Association of Sport Journalists of Tajikistan Narzullo Latifov told AP.
He believes that boxers Anvar Yunusov and Mavzuna Chorieva have good chances to be among prize winners. “Jahon Kurbonov is also able to surprise his fans,” he said.
“However, we have to remember that too many things depend on the fact who will become rivals of our boxers at the preliminary stage. Our hopes will crash down if they have to fight acting champions in the beginning of the Olympics,” he stressed.
Latifov also said that only a miracle can help Tajik taekwondo fighters Alisher Gulov and Farhod Negmatov, who qualified to the Olympics having no previous high-sounding achievements, to become prize winners.
“Most probably this will be the last Olympic Games for our wrestler Yusuf Abdusalomov due to age-specific reasons,” Latifov has said.
Expert does not count too much on Tajik fans’ favorites – Tajik judo wrestler Rasul Bokiev and hammer thrower Dilshod Nazarov.
“If we look at R.Bokiev’s results for the past 1-2 years we’ll see that he is ranked 19th and 20th in the ranking list of world’s judo wrestlers. D.Nazarov’s achievements are also not enough to hope for the gold,” he said.
Summarizing the results of his forecast Latifov stressed that Tajik sportsmen will be able to win two or three bronze or silver medals at the forthcoming 2012 London Olympic Games. “Even though it sounds too sad, we won’t be able to win gold medals at the London Olympics,” he added.
