Kazakhstan seeks to win at least two medals at Sochi Olympics

    The National Olympic Team of Kazakhstan must win at least two medals, Deputy Chairman of the Agency for Sports and Physical Education Yelsiyar Kanagatov said in an interview for Primeminister.kz.
    "The goal set for the national team is to perform better than in Vancouver -- both in terms of the number of licenses and the number of sports in which we compete. Our goal is to win at least two different medals at the Olympic Games in Sochi," Kanagatov noted.
    He said the main contenders for the award were athletes who successfully performed in world championships and cup competitions.
    "If we talk of the main contenders for the award in Sochi, these are first of all, Alexey Poltoranin, who showed stable results in cross-country skiing world championships and cup competitions," Kanagatov stressed.
    In addition, he expressed hope that ‘N. Chebotko and A. Poltoranin’ would also obtain strong results in the team sprint competition.
    He said Kazakhstan’s main opponents in skiing were Russia, Norway and Switzerland.
    Given the results that Kazakhstani athletes showed in the world championships, they should be able to perform successfully in speed skating, figure skating, freestyle mogul and biathlon.
    At the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010 Kazakhstan ranked 25^th in the overall standings with 1 silver medal, CA-News said.