361 medals – 122 gold, 103 silver and 136 bronze – were won by Turkmen athletes at international competitions in the first half of the year.

This was reported during a Cabinet meeting on Friday, July 12, TDH reports.

Reporting on the work being carried out in the field of sports, the Deputy Prime Minister said that measures are being taken to develop physical culture and sports, and train professional athletes.

The country's sporting reputation was strengthened by the holding of an International Ice Hockey tournament and the announcement of Ashgabat as the "City of New Sports opportunities of the Commonwealth".

The eighth stage was a serious test at the distance of the 14th edition of the Silk Road Rally Marathon.

The 314-kilometer-long special stage began on rocky roads leading to the stone riverbed, from where the caravan of participants headed to the Zavkhan sand massif, where the crews had to overcome 100 kilometers of dunes.

Production SUVs: Danatarov's victory

In the T2 production SUV standings, Maksatmyrat Danatarov turned out to be the leader of the day, who was 13 minutes ahead of Merdan Toyliyev and 19 ahead of Andrei Sushentsov. Nevertheless, Sushentsov continues to lead in the overall standings — his advantage over the nearest pursuers is almost four hours. Representatives of the Turkmenavtolaglary agency, the brothers Merdan and Shohrat Toyliyev, are second in the overall standings, the crew of the Motor Sports Federation of Turkmenistan under the control of pilot Maksatmyrat Danatarov and navigator Didar Orazmedov are third. Mikhail Mityaev and Meylis Abdullayev followed.

The Silk Road rally raid will last until July 15.

On August 16, the match "Ashgabat" – "Kopetdag" The third round of the Turkmenistan Football Championship starts. The championship will resume after the summer break.

The 19th round of the Major League will continue on August 17 with the matches "Ahal" - "Energetik" and "Nebichi" – "Merv", the Football Federation of Turkmenistan reports.

The championship is held in four rounds with the participation of nine clubs of the country (Arkadag, Altyn Asyr, Ahal, Shagadam, Nebichi, Ashgabat, Energetik, Merv and Kopetdag) . 

Currently, the leading football club is Arkadag, which has scored 48 points in 16 matches. The second and third places in the standings are occupied by the Altyn Asyr teams (37 points) and "Ahal" (34 points).

"Turan-Tovuz" defeated FC Kapaz 4-0 in a friendly match at the Gabala City Stadium, the press service of the Azerbaijani club reports.

This is the second match of the team under the leadership of Kurban Berdyev, who was appointed head coach on June 25.

In their first game under Berdiyev, Turan won an even more impressive victory, defeating FC Shamkir with a score of 13:0 in the control meeting.

The seventh stage of the Silk Road Rally took participants from one of the oldest cities in Mongolia, Khovda, to Altai, the administrative center of the Gobi-Altai Aimag.

The special stage started on a rocky plateau, and then the participants were waiting for 50 kilometers of a navigation quest: navigators untangled a web of stone roads. The route of the stage also passed along a picturesque lake and crossed the Mongol Els sand dune massif with impassable dunes between mountain ranges and dunes with steep reverse slopes.

The steppe roads through the stone canyon have completed the distance. The total distance was 512.44 km.

Production SUVs

Andrey Sushentsov won another stage victory in the T2 production SUV category, further consolidating his advantage in the overall standings. His main pursuers are the representatives of the Turkmenavtolaglary agency, the brothers Merdan and Shohrat Toylyev. The third is the crew of the Automobile Sports Federation of Turkmenistan under the control of pilot Maksatmyrat Danatarov. Mikhail Mityaev takes the fourth place, and Meilis Abdullaev closes the top 5.

The Silk Road rally raid will last until July 15.

The Colombian national team beat Uruguay in the semi-finals of the Copa America with a score of 1:0.

The only goal in this meeting in the 39th minute was scored by Jefferson Lerma from a pass from midfielder James Rodriguez.

At the end of the first half, Colombian player Daniel Muñoz received a second yellow card and left his team shorthanded for most of the game.

32-year-old James Rodriguez provided his sixth assist in the current Copa America. This is the best result since 2011. The Colombian surpassed Argentina captain Lionel Messi, who had five assists in the 2021 tournament. James was named man of the match.

The Colombian national team reached the final of the Copa America for the third time in history. In 1975, the Colombians became vice-champions, and in 2001 they won their only trophy.

Earlier, the Argentina national team beat Canada with a score of 2:0 and reached the final of the Copa America for the 30th time. Lionel Scaloni's team is a 15-time winner of the tournament.

The national teams of Uruguay and Canada will meet on July 13 in the match for the bronze medals of the tournament. The America's Cup final will take place on July 14th.

On July 11, the draw for the 2024 Turkmenistan Cup took place in the conference hall of the Football Federation of Turkmenistan. 9 teams representing the Major League will compete for victory in the upcoming season.

According to the regulations, the teams “Merv” and “Shagadam”, which took the last two places in the last season of the Turkmenistan football championship, will meet in the preliminary round. The winner of the preliminary round will meet "Altyn Asyr" in the quarterfinals, according to the draw.

Results of the draw:

FC "Arkadag" - "Shagadam"

"Nebitchi" - "Ashgabat"

"Ahal" - "Kopetdag"

"Altyn Asyr" is the winner of the preliminary round.

The Cup preliminary round matches will take place on August 11th and 14th. The first games of the quarterfinals will be held on August 24-25, the return games on September 2-3.

Football players of the "Arkadag" team will play with "Ahal" in the match for the 2024 Turkmenistan Football Super Cup, FFT reports.

Let us remind you that last season “Arkadag”, under the leadership of head coach Vladimir Bayramov, won two trophies - the Major League and the Turkmenistan Cup, and will now play for the Super Cup with “Ahal”, which became the finalist of the National Cup.

The Super Cup match is scheduled for September 28. The organizers will inform you about the place and time of the game later.

It is worth noting that "Ahal" already won the Super Cup in 2014, while "Arkadag" will compete for this trophy for the first time.

The current winner of the Super Cup is "Altyn Asyr", which beat "Shagadam" with a score of 3:1 in 2022. The tournament was not held in 2023.

Turkmen mixed martial arts fighter Dovletjan Yagshimuradov will fight in the semifinals of the PFL regular season.

His opponent in the light heavyweight category will be Australian Rob Wilkinson.

The semi-final fights in the lightweight and light heavyweight divisions will take place in Hollywood (USA) in the early morning of August 17. The fight between Yagshimuradov and Wilkinson will take place at approximately 06:00 Ashgabat time.

Let us note that in the final match for reaching the semi-finals, Dovletjan Yagshimuradov defeated Cameroonian Simon Biyong. In turn, Wilkinson defeated Joshua Silveira from the USA by split decision.

The ring stage near the Mongolian city of Khovd became the longest on the route of the Silk Road Rally and took participants through the first dunes of the marathon, which became the main highlight of the special stage. The total distance was 542.30 km.

Serial SUVs

Andrey Sushentsov won another victory in the T2 series SUV classification and significantly strengthened his advantage in the overall standings. The fact is that one of his main rivals, Mikhail Mityaev from LADA Sport ROSNEFT Raid, encountered technical problems after an unsuccessful descent from the dune and completed the special stage on an asphalt road - the crew was counted ten hours behind. And Anton Melnikov from the Podmoskovye team had an engine jam, and the crew finished the race ahead of schedule.

Now the main pursuer of Sushentsov was the crew of the brothers Merdan and Shohrat Toyliyev, who won the Silk Way rally in 2022. Both are representatives of the "Turkmenavtoulaglary" agency. Now, however, they are more than two and a half hours behind the leader, but have a chance to catch up. The Silk Road Rally will last until July 15.

Another crew of the Automobile Sports Federation of Turkmenistan under the control of pilot Maksatmyrat Danatarov and navigator Didar Orazmedov rose to third place.

The table tennis tournament among young athletes born in 2011 and younger has ended in Ashgabat. The competition, organized by the Table Tennis Federation of Turkmenistan, attracted participants from Ashgabat and Mary.

The tournament was aimed at popularizing table tennis in the country, identifying talented players and assessing the effectiveness of working with young athletes. The organizers noted a noticeable increase in the level of skill of the participants, which indicates the successful development of this sport in Turkmenistan.

Chairman of the Federation Agamurat Allanazarov emphasized the importance of such competitions for the formation of the future national team. He also expressed gratitude to the country's leadership for supporting the development of table tennis.

It should be noted that holding such a tournament demonstrates attention to the development of children’s and youth sports in Turkmenistan. The success of the event permits us to optimistically assess the prospects of table tennis in the country and expect future achievements of Turkmen athletes in the international arena.

The Spanish national team won a strong-willed victory over France in the semi-finals of the European Football Championship. The match, held in Munich, ended with a score of 2:1 in favor of the Spaniards.

Lamin Yamal (21st minute) and Dani Olmo (25th minute) scored goals for the winners. Randal Kolo-Mouany (9) scored for the French. Yamal, at the age of 16, became the youngest goal scorer in the history of the European Championships.

French team captain Kylian Mbappe entered the field without a protective mask, despite a broken nose received in the match against Austria. Mbappe provided an assist in this game.

The team's top scorer Olivier Giroud played his last match for the French national team. The striker came on as a substitute in the 79th minute. In May, the footballer said that the European Championship would be his last tournament as part of the national team.

In the Euro 2024 final, Spain will play against the winner of the match between the Netherlands and England, which will be held on July 10 in Dortmund. The meeting for the trophy will take place on July 14 in Berlin.