"It was Cold But We Tried…"

14.05.2018

The football players of Bogatyr Coal LLP, the employees of Bogatyr Loading and Transportation Department, forward Murat Akhmetsharipov and back Almas Kasenov returned from the international tournament in mini-football called Power Engineers of Siberia-2018 Cup. They were defending the honor of the picked team of Samruk-Energy power holding, which brought the honorable 2-nd place from Novosibirsk after the successful debut in the competitions.

- In the tournament timed to the celebration of the 73-rd anniversary of Victory 16 teams of the fuel and energy complex of Russia and Kazakhstan took part, - says Almas Kasenov. - In the composition of Samruk-Energy team there were the sportsmen from Alatau Zharyk Kompaniyasy JSC, Ekibastuz Power Plant #1 named after B. Nurzhanov LLP, and football players from our company.

The picked team of Samruk-Energy JSC was trained by the coach Anuar Turlubayev. The training and going of the football players to the competition was provided by Managing Director for Procurement Yerbol Sarmanbetov and the representative of the Administrative Department of Samruk-Energy JSC Azamat Bulatov. They were accompanying and supporting the team in the capital of Siberia.

- We became the members of the picked team by the results of eliminatory games taken place in Astana in April. Prior to going to the tournament we had a three-day technical-tactic and physical training in the capital. Then we flew to Novosibirsk. We were met by the cold and wet weather. All the games took place during one day - on May 5 from 09:00 a.m. through to 05:00 p.m. on the big open stadium. On that day it was raining and snowing and there was the strong wind blowing. Our team was the only one wearing shorts. All the other football players hided from the bad weather into tights and caps. We were joking: "Just Kazakhs are wearing shorts!" In the breaks they were warming up by tea with lemon. It was dreadfully cold but we were trying to do our best...

The picked team of Samruk-Energy took the first place among the four teams. In the match for the Cup of the tournament Kazakhstani power engineers met with the team called Sibirenergoservice and rebutted decently the opponent - the strongest team of the fuel and energy complex behind the Urals having tied the score 0:0. A Cup possessor was determined in the series of penalty shoot outs – 3:2 in favor of the tournament hosts.

By Almas Kasenov, the impressions of the Kazakhstani players after the game were brightest and unforgettable. By the way, the picked team of Samruk-Energy left positive emotions for the Russians.

- The honorable guest of the tournament was Valeriy Nepomnyashchiy, famous Soviet football player and coach in the past, and currently he is an experienced specialist and expert of the Russian premiere-league. He was pleased with our team, appraised it for theoric combinational play and invited us to participate in more games.

Power Engineers of Siberia-2018 Cup was finished. But the sportsmen have no time to think about rest. A few days ago Murat Akhmetsharipov left for Barcelona in the composition of Sayran team from Astana to defend the honor of our republic at the club World Championship in football among amateurs. Let us wish success to the sportsman!

Written by Marina PONKRATOVA

Photo from the archives of Samruk-Energy picked team