The Turkmenistan Track Cycling Championship in Ashgabat kicked off the festive events dedicated to the World Bicycle Day celebrated on June 3 around the planet.

The venue of the competition, organized by the State Committee for Physical Culture and Sports of Turkmenistan and the Cycling Federation of the country, was the cycle track located in the Olympic Village.

More than 50 athletes born in 2006-2010 from Ashgabat, velayats, the School for Training Young Olympians, and other sports organizations of the country competed in the flying 200 m time trial, individual time trial, individual pursuit and team sprint 500 and 750 meters. The winners and prize-winners of the Turkmenistan championship were awarded valuable prizes.

As previously reported, within the framework of the celebration of World Bicycle Day, a 335-km bicycle marathon is also planned with the participation of the national team along a special route on the Mary-Tejen-Ashgabat high-speed highway section from May 31 to June 3. On June 3, a mass bicycle race is envisaged to be organized in the capital.

It is worth recalling that the World Bicycle Day was established on the initiative of Turkmenistan in April 2018 at the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly.

Turkmen athletes have won two gold and two silver medals at the Kyokushin Karate World Championship in Jakarta (Indonesia). 

The gold medals were won by Dayanch Gylychdurdyev, a 5th year student at the Turkmen State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports, in the men's under 65kg weight category, and Ogulbagt Kurbanowa, a coach at the National Kyokushin Karate Center of Turkmenistan, in the women's over 65kg weight category. 

The silver medals were won by Gulnabat Yazilova (under 55 kg), a 1st year student at the Turkmen State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports, and Ayymjan Sultanova (under 65 kg), a coach at the 5th sports school in Dashoguz city, Dashoguz region. 

340 athletes from 13 countries participated in the competition.

Athletes of Turkmenistan won 20 gold, 7 silver and 10 bronze medals at the international tournament «Balt Cup-2024» in the non-Olympic version of ITF taekwondo, which was held in the capital of Estonia.

About 500 athletes from 8 countries competed for awards in various age categories.

The Turkmenistan team was represented by 25 athletes who, based on the results of all types of the program, won 37 medals - 8 more than last year at the same tournament.

It is also gratifying that this is not the first success of ITF taekwondo masters from Turkmenistan at international competitions this year. Two months ago, at an international tournament in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), they won 34 medals, of which 19 were gold, 9 silver and 6 bronze.

Hans-Dieter Flick has become the new helmsman of the Catalan “Barcelona”, the club's press service reports. The 59 years old German specialist signed a contract with the “Blaugrana” until June 30, 2026.

Let us remind that on May 24, “Barcelona” announced their separation from Xavi, who had led the team since the beginning of this year.

Flick is best known for his work with “Bayern” Munich, whom he coached from 2019 to 2021. During this time, under his leadership, the Bavarians won two league titles, two German Cups, two German Super Cups, the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup.

In 2021, Flick led the German national team, but failed to take them out of the group at the 2022 World Cup. This was followed by a series of unsuccessful friendly matches, which ultimately led to the specialist’s resignation.

The rival of the national team of Turkmenistan in the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup, the Hong Kong team, has changed its head coach. 44 years old Austrian specialist Wolfgang Luisser has been appointed as the new mentor, replacing Jorn Anderson, who worked in the position for 3,5 years. In June 2022, Anderson successfully led Hong Kong to the finals of the 2023 Asian Cup, the first time this has happened in 54 years.

Luisser will assume the duties of acting head coach, leading the team into the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Iran and Turkmenistan.

Meanwhile, the football players of the Turkmenistan national team arrived for a training camp in Antalya, Türkiye, where until June 4 they will prepare for the upcoming qualifying matches for the 2026 World Cup with the teams of Uzbekistan and Hong Kong.

Let us remind that 24 football players have been invited to the national team to prepare for the final qualifying games of the 2026 World Cup.

In the 5th round of the qualifying stage of the 2026 World Cup, Turkmen football players will meet on June 6 in Tashkent with Uzbekistan, and in the final qualifying match they will play on June 11 at home with Hong Kong.

After four rounds, the Turkmenistan team takes third place in group E with 1 point.

In honor of the International Children's Day, Ashgabat will host a concert with the participation of the Youth Symphony Orchestra and the United Children's Choir. The event will begin at 15:00 on June 1 at the Mukam Palace of the State Cultural Center of Turkmenistan.

The concert was organized by a specially created Organizing Committee, which carefully selected talented children from art, music and specialized educational institutions of the country. Children from all regions of Turkmenistan, including the cities of Ashgabat and Arkadag, participated in the selection.

110 talented young musicians from the Youth Symphony Orchestra and about 120 members of the united Children's Choir will perform on stage. Young singers and musicians will also perform with them, who will perform famous works by Turkmen and foreign composers.

Football players of the Turkmenistan national team will play a friendly match with the Greenland team on June 1 in Antalya (UAE). 

The upcoming game Is planned as part of the training camp of the national team of Turkmenistan, which is preparing for the qualifying matches for the 2026 World Cup against Uzbekistan (June 6) and Hong Kong (June 11).

This will be the first match between the national teams of Turkmenistan and Greenland in history.

The head coach of the Turkmenistan national team is Mergen Orazov. His assistants are Mekan Muhammetmyradov, Velsahet Ovezov, Pavel Matus, Ildar Tashliev and Batyr Rozyev.

The training camp of the Turkmen team will last until June 4, after which the players will go to Tashkent for a match with the Uzbekistan national team. After the game in Uzbekistan, the Turkmenistan team will return to Ashgabat, where they will host Hong Kong on June 11 in the final match of the second round of the 2026 World Cup qualifying tournament.

At the moment, Iran and Uzbekistan are in the lead in Group E, with 10 points each. Turkmenistan and Hong Kong occupy 3-4 places respectively, having one point each.

President Serdar Berdimuhamedov sent sincere congratulations to Mr. Gitanas Nauseda on his re-election as President of the Republic of Lithuania.

Taking advantage of this pleasant opportunity, the Head of State expressed to President Gitanas Nauseda wishes for good health, happiness and new successes in responsible government activities, and peace, progress and prosperity to the people of the Republic of Lithuania.

At the meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the CIS countries on May 24, it was decided to expand cooperation in the field of sports. As a result, Ashgabat was declared the City of new sports opportunities of the Commonwealth. The Heads of Government instructed the Council for Physical Culture and Sports to develop a draft Action Plan for 2024-2025 aimed at implementing this initiative.

This decision confirms the increased interest of the Commonwealth partners in the sports potential of Turkmenistan in recent years. Our country is an initiator and organizer of major sporting events on a regular basis. In 2017, the V Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games were held in Ashgabat with great success. In 2018, at the initiative of Turkmenistan, the UN General Assembly established World Bicycle Day, which is celebrated annually on June 3.

The announcement of Ashgabat as a City of new sports opportunities in the CIS is a confirmation of Turkmenistan's efforts to promote a healthy lifestyle and develop sports culture. The action plan for 2024-2025, which will be developed by the Council for Physical Culture and Sports, is aimed at further strengthening and expanding these achievements.

This initiative opens up new prospects for sports cooperation between the CIS countries and contributes to enhancing the international prestige of Ashgabat as a center of sports innovation and opportunities.

The draw for the tenth Futsal World Championship was held in Samarkand, which will be held from September 14 to October 6, 2024 in three cities of Uzbekistan - Tashkent, Andijan and Bukhara.

Based on the results of the draw, the teams of the Central Asian republics determined their opponents in the group stage. The hosts of the tournament, the national team of Uzbekistan, will play with teams from the Netherlands,

Paraguay and Costa Rica. Tajikistan will face Portugal, Morocco and Panama. Kazakhstan was in a group with the teams of Spain, New Zealand and Libya.

Based on the results of the group stage, the 16 teams that finished first and second, as well as the top four teams that finished third, will advance to the playoffs and continue to compete for the championship title.

Results of the 2024 Futsal World Cup draw:

Group “A” (Tashkent)

• Uzbekistan
• Netherlands
• Paraguay
• Costa Rica

Group “B” (Bukhara)

• Brazil
• Cuba
• Croatia
• Thailand

Group “C” (Tashkent)

• Argentina

• Ukraine

• Afghanistan

• Angola

Group “D” (Andijan)

• Spain

• Kazakhstan

• New Zealand

• Libya

Group “E” (Tashkent)

• Portugal

• Panama

• Tajikistan

• Morocco

Group “F” (Bukhara)

• Iran

• Venezuela

• Guatemala

• France

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has published an updated club rating based on the results of the completed 2023/2024 season. In this ranking, out of 47 AFC member countries, Turkmenistan is in 19th place, gaining 20,2 points.

Among the countries of Central Asia, Turkmenistan was ahead of Kyrgyzstan (27th place, 15,5 points), but was behind Tajikistan (18th place, 22,5 points) and Uzbekistan (9th place, 47,3 points). The leaders in the ranking were

Saudi Arabia (103,1 points), Japan (97 points) and the Republic of Korea (93,6 points).

Starting from the 2024/2025 season, AFC club competitions will be divided into three levels: Elite Champions League, Champions League 2 and Challenge League. Thanks to 19th place in the ranking, Turkmenistan received the right to field two teams in Asian competitions.

As journalist Alisher Nikimbayev reports on the Telegram channel “Futbolium”, the current champion of Turkmenistan “Arkadag”, together with teams from India, Bahrain and Kuwait, will compete for two tickets to the group stage of the Champions League 2. And the finalist of the 2023 Turkmenistan Cup “Ahal” will directly get into group stage of the Challenge League.

Defender of the Belarusian club Vitebsk and the national team of Turkmenistan Vepa Dzhumaev is forced to miss the June training camp of the Turkmen team due to injury.

As the footballer himself told the press service of the national team, during one of the matches in the Belarusian championship, he suffered damage to the front surface of his thigh. Dzhumaev hoped to recover in time for the 2026 World Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan, but the injury turned out to be more serious, and it was not possible to fully recover in time.

Representatives of the Turkmenistan national team wished Dzhumaev a speedy recovery on social networks.

Thus, the defender will miss not only the game with Uzbekistan, but also the meeting with Hong Kong in the 2026 World Cup qualifying round.