Turkmen gold, silver and bronze on final day of Boxing in Baku

Arslanbek Achilov secured Turkmenistan’s second gold medal at the 4^th Islamic Solidarity Games on the final day of the Boxing tournament on Thursday. The 23-year-old Olympian beat home favourite Rauf Rahimov (AZE) in the -81kg category final at Baku’s Crystal Hall to lead the Turkmen medal chase for the day.

Thursday’s second Turkmen finalist in the boxing tournament, Yakub Meredov, won silver, with Adbulkhay Sharakhmatov (UZB) winning gold in the bantamweight category (-56kg).

Compatriot Hursand Imankuliyev was handed bronze in the lightweight (-60kg) after Javid Chalabiyev (AZE) took gold when he defeated Ammar Karbalai (IRQ) in the final.

Uzbekistan won three out of three finals in Boxing on Thursday to underline its status as one of the sport’s pre-eminent nations, having topped the Boxing medal table at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Wrestling bronze for Permanov 
In Greco-Roman wrestling, Shermet Permanov won a bronze medal in the -75kg category. The  Turkmen was defeated in the semi-final by Elvin Mursaliyev (AZE), who went on to take gold in front of the home crowd.

Medal tally
Thursday’s four medals brought the Turkmen total to 11 (2 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze). Turkmenistan thus climbed to 12^th place in the medal table. Turkey still tops the ranking with 60 gold medals, 52 silvers and 43 bronzes, for 155 in total. Second-ranked Azerbaijan closed the gap and is only one gold medal adrift on 59. The host nation is further behind in its total amount, with 33 silvers and 24 bronzes, for 116 medals in total. Iran is still third with 67 medals (16 gold, 22 silver and 29 bronze).