DUSHANBE, December 8, Asia-Plus - A second group of Tajik athletes to participate in the 15 ^th Asian Games has failed to arrived in Doha on time, getting stick at the Mashhad (Iran) airport.  These athletes have been removed from competitions.

This group was scheduled to fly to Doha by a plane of Iran’s air carrier Asman Air on December 5 but because of bad weather conditions the plane failed to arrive in Dushanbe on time, according to the Committee for Youth, Sports and Toursim.  “Therefore our sportsmen flew to Tehran, from where they were supposed to get to Qatar, only Wednesday night, but they got stick at the airport of Mashhad.” the source said.   

According to him, the committee’s administration got in touch with Tajik delegation in Qatar to inform them about these problems.  However, these athletes have been removed from competitions.   

We will recall that Tajik sportsmen are competing in 14 sports: taekwon-do; karate-do; athletics; boxing; table tennis; free-style wrestling; judo; soccer, weightlifting, etc.  Tajikistan has still won its first medal in the games.  On December 5, Tajik wrestler Rasul Boqiyev won the bronze medal, finishing third in the men’s –73 kg judo.  

Nearly 12,000 athletes from 45 countries across the Asian continent are competing in the following sports: archery, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, body building, bowling, boxing, canoe-kayak, chess, cue sports, cycling, equestrian, fencing, soccer, golf, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, kabaddi, karate-do, rowing, rugby, sailing, shooting, soft tennis, squash, table tennis, taekwon-do, tennis, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.