DUSHANBE, July 29, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- The National Olympic Committee (NOC) has set prize money to Tajik athletes who win Olympic medals in Beijing, Tajikistan’s NOC president Bahrullo Rajabaliyev remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 28.  

Speaking to reporters, Rajabaliyev announced that Tajik gold winners will receive $10,000 each, silver winners will receive $5,000 and bronze winners - $3,000.  

In the meantime, Maliksho Nematov, head of the Committee for Youth, Sports, and Tourism Affairs, noted that the government has not yet announced awards to Tajik medal winners at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.  According to him, this issue may probably be discussed at a July 29 meeting of President Emomali Rahmon with Tajik athletes that will participate at the Olympic Games.  

The Tajik delegation, numbering 30 persons, including fourteen athletes and two reporters, will leave for Beijing on July 31. 

We will recall that fourteen Tajik athletes have qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.  Among them are Dilshod Nazarov (hammer throwing), Galina Mityayeva (track and field athletics), judo players Rasoul Boqiyev, Sherali Bozorov and Nematullo Asronqulov, free-style wrestlers Yusuf Abdusalomov and Vitaly Koryakin, boxers Anvar Yunusov, Jahon Qurbonov and Sherali Dostiyev, swimmers Yekaterina Izmaylova and Alisher Chingizov, female archer Albina Kamolitdinova, and weightlifter Nizom Sangov.    

The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, will be celebrated from August 8, 2008 to August 24, 2008.  Some events will be held outside Beijing, namely football (in Qinhuangdao, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Tianjin), equestrian (in Hong Kong) and sailing (Qingdao).  This will be the third time the Olympics are held under the jurisdiction of 2 different NOCs (Hong Kong and mainland China compete separately).

The Olympic Games were awarded to Beijing after an exhaustive ballot of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on July 13, 2001.  The official logo of the games is titled “Dancing Beijing.”