NUR-SULTAN, December 1, 2020 – Quarantine has immobilized children’s sports in Kazakhstan. Private sports facilities were allowed at least to work minimally, under some restrictive conditions. However, free sports clubs for children are out of work - classes for no more than five people and strictly on the street. Additional education facilities are subject to the same rules as schools. Lockdown put children's professional sports back a year, experts say. No training, no competition, no motivation. Complete stagnation!
Take for example the Aktobe region, located in western Kazakhstan.
“Of course, it’s hard for us,” complains Gulnara Kartanova, director of a specialized children's and youth sports school for tennis from the Aktobe Region. “The physical level of athletes is falling. Trainers teach online, but this does not replace live lessons. In tennis, breaks are generally unacceptable. Tennis players must play at least 92 matches a year in order not to lose their skills. Parents, who can afford, are looking for other options for their child. Last year we recruited groups of kids. From May to early July, we had time to practice, when they let us for a while, and then everything was shut down. We cannot practice in the rain, because it is dangerous.
“The tennis school is ready to create new conditions during a pandemic, just let us train indoors! Since fitness, cafes, shopping centers, public baths are allowed to operate, maybe they should think about us as well?” says the director of the sports school.
“Give at least a little indulgence. We have the area for it - four large courts. We would have adjusted ourselves to the new requirements. For example, we would have made separate entrance and exit so that the groups did not come across with each other, we would have reduced the training hours and let in one group at a time.
“Swimmers and winter sports enthusiasts especially suffer from quarantine restrictions. We cannot launch all groups at the same time,” laments the director of the Dostyk Regional Children's Youth Sports School Serik Nuralin. “They allowed only older swimmers who participate in republican, international tournaments. This year more than 200 new students have come to us. The children didn't even have time to practice. Parents wrote me a collective letter that in case of infection they would take responsibility for themselves, just let them train. I can't risk that.”
Recently, the parents of the kids from the Olympus Sports School were outraged by the fact that the Ice Palace was open, but the free trainings are closed.
“We explain that the ice arena is private,” the figure skating coach of Olympus Anna Lychko comments on the incident. “Those who can pay, go there to ride. It pains to see the children suffering! It turns out, those who have money, get training in private sports clubs, those who do not have - stay at home. My opinion: either allow everyone, or forbid everyone.
“The skaters also had to be content with only general physical fitness. Warm hats, jackets - and ... outside. Everything that young athletes have to do on the ice is now done on the ground. Asphalt will not replace ice for us,” the coach sighs. “We dress warmly and train by five people. Naturally, the targets we planned will no longer be reached.
“Promising hockey players from the junior and middle ranks are taken to other cities altogether. And these children won't come back, the region is losing strong athletes,” says Anna Lychko. “In hockey, we have just started taking the first steps towards success, showing results, and now they are leaving. Imagine what it is like for a coach who put all his strength into a child. Start over? My 12-year-old daughter is engaged in hockey, I sent her to Novosibirsk to the girls' team. The child herself understands that it is impossible to sit back.”
Employees of the Regional Sports Department have already sent letters to the chief sanitary doctor twice with a request to reconsider the sanitary requirements for public sports clubs.
“They don’t meet us halfway,” states the head of the Regional Sports Department Evgeny Goncharov. “We work in accordance with the decree of the sanitary doctor. And they dictate the same rules to us as to educational institutions, since we have additional education. Only pupils of the intellectual sports schools are trained in the room. Football players are allowed group training on the field. Karate classes are also held at the stadium. I turned to the Governor, Deputy Governor. But the Governor’s Office quotes the republican decree, everything goes only in the direction of toughening. Parents are outraged why private sports centers work, but children cannot go to free ones. If suddenly tomorrow there will be a competition, it will be a competition of doomed losers. What is the point of holding them, spending money on travel, when the athletes are not ready?”
