147 Tajik athletes, including 130 men and 17 women, will participate in the2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games that will take place in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, from September 17-21, a source at the National Olympic Committee of Tajikistan told Asia-Plus in an interview.
According to him, Tajik athletes will compete in chess, belt wrestling, freestyle wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling, Muay Thai (Thai boxing), kickboxing, powerlifting, taekwondo (WTF), kurash, jiu-jitsu, sambo, and track and field athletics.
In all, 6,000 athletes from 62 countries will participate in the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, the source added.
The 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, which is also counted as the 5th Asian Indoor Games will be held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan in 2017. Ashgabat, first in the former Soviet Central Asian region, won the right to host the Asian Indoor Games. The host city was chosen in Kuwait on December 19, 2010. On July 6, 2013, the flag of the Olympic Council of Asia was officially handed over to the mayor of the city of Ashgabat
The Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games will be held at the Ashgabat Olympic Complex, which is a unique facility which has no parallel in the Central Asian region. The Complex boasts of over 30 structures, which also includes 15 competition venues, an Athletes' Village and a Paralympic Rehabilitation Medical Center. The construction was launched by the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. On November 5, 2010, the Turkmenistan President took part in the official stone laying ceremony for the Olympic Village. Investment in the first phase amounted to nearly $2 billion. The second phase of construction cost $3 billion. The total cost of the Olympic Village was $5 billion and the construction was carried by Turkish construction company Polimeks.
