Kazakh boxing coach in Xinjiang forges lasting bond with China

Damir Budanbekov, from Kazakhstan, is the head coach of the Xinjiang boxing team in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. He was the chief coach of Kazakhstan's national boxing team at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games. In 1990, when the Xinjiang boxing team was in its early stages, he worked there for more than a month, laying a solid foundation for the team's development. He was re-invited as a coach in 2015.

As a witness to Xinjiang's sports development over the past three decades, Budanbekov recalled that there were few public sports facilities in the region in the 1990s, and even fewer boxing gyms. However, in recent years, sports schools for teenagers have been established in cities such as Altay and Kashgar, and boxing has been flourishing.

"I have only one goal: to win the championship," Budanbekov said. He expressed his intention to continue working in Xinjiang as long as his physical condition allows.