By RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service
July 9, 2020
Turkish authorities have moved the Fourth World Nomad Games to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The games, an international competition dedicated to ethnic sports, were scheduled to be held in the Turkish city of Bursa in autumn this year.
The President of the Turkey-based World Ethnosport Confederation, Bilal Erdogan, said on July 9 that the decision was made after consultations with Turkey’s Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Youth and Sports, and Health Ministry to prevent a surge in coronavirus cases.
The World Nomad Games were initiated by Kyrgyzstan and held for the first time in the Central Asian nation in 2014.
The second and third World Nomad Games were also held in Kyrgyzstan’s picturesque northern region of Issyk-Kul in 2016 and 2018.
The nomad games include horse racing, archery, mounted archery, falconry, and different types of wrestling, including wrestling from horseback.
The games have gained in popularity, prompting teams representing Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, the Philippines, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Russia, and even the United States to regularly attend the event.
The last World Nomad Games in 2018 hosted athletes from 66 countries, including several European nations, such as Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Ukraine.
This year, for the first time, the games were scheduled to be held outside of Kyrgyzstan.
With reporting by Anadolu, TRT Haber, and Yeni Safak