Haiyang, China: The National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan has finalised its delegation for the London Olympic Games, with 13 athletes among the 28-strong team. According to Chef de Mission Salamat Ergeshov, Kyrgyzstan will have four athletes in wrestling, two in judo, swimming and athletics, and one each in shooting, taekwondo and weightlifting.

“We have hopes to win one medal in wrestling. All of our wrestling athletes are quite strong,” he said. Daniyar Kobonov, who has been named team captain, won the 2010 Asian Games crown in Guangzhou in the men’s 74kg Greco-Roman wrestling, and carries high expectations to London.

Kyrgyzstan will be looking for their first gold medal at the Olympics after winning one bronze in Sydney 2000 and a silver and a bronze at Beijing four years ago. “In the 1980 Moscow Olympics, athletes from Kyrgyzstan won five gold medals for the Soviet Union, but our first Olympic medal competing as Kyrgyzstan came in Sydney 2000, a bronze in judo,” added Salamat.

He is also hoping that another Olympic Games appearance will help promote Kyrgyzstan around the world. “Always people ask ‘where are you from?’ “When we say Kyrgyzstan they don’t know where it is, but they say they have heard of Kazakhstan. So we say we are near Kazakhstan.”