The National Championship in Powerlifting and Bench Press finished in Taraz. Yernur Khaylyamov, an undergraduate student of the Faculty of Metallurgy, Mechanical Engineering and Transport of S. Toraighyrov PSU, won the main prize in Men's -59 kg category.

Yernur Khaylyamov showed a fantastic result of 560 kg leaving all of his rivals far behind.

He lifted 172.5 kg in bench press, which is a new record for the region.

Ye. Khaylyamov shares his impressions of the trip and says that he has already started preparing for the next competition.

“I talked to athletes from other regions of our country. I realized that I need to continuously improve myself if I want to keep winning. I want to say thanks to Ivan Prokopenko, my coach, for working with me and helping me progress for so many years. I will do my best to continue achieving high results in the future!” he says.

Starting from ancient times, athletes have been competing in weightlifting, so powerlifting as a sport has very deep roots. However, this sort of competition was prohibited in the USSR and developed illegally. It was not until 1990's that powerlifting gained international recognition. Perhaps, this is why it still has not been included in the Olympic spots.

Yernur Khaylyamov is convinced that one day it will happen, and Kazakh athletes will have no equals.

Yernur started training when he was 9 years old, and has already received the titles of a master of sports and champion of Kazakhstan in weightlifting. He has been seriously interested in powerlifting since the age of 19. Now Yernur says he has already developed a habit of training and winning. A rich collection of diplomas and certificates speaks for itself. Yernur believes that all those achievements came easy to him. It wasn't the favorite sport that was the problem. It was difficult to combine studies with sports. Besides, frequent injuries often made him think about whether he wanted to go on or not.

But regardless of any difficulties, the young athlete does not give up. He keeps overcoming all obstacles, gaining victories over his opponents and, to some extent, over himself too.

Despite the fact that Yernur Khaylyamov is still very young, he already has plenty of fantastic achievements in sport. Now he wants to break another record - this time, the national one.