At the IX Asian Winter Games, which will be held from February 7 to 14 in Harbin, China, Turkmenistan will debut in two sports at once. For the first time in the country's history, Turkmen short track and figure skaters will compete at such a level, the publication "Turkmenistan: Golden Age" reports.

It is noted that the Turkmen delegation of 37 people (25 athletes) arrived for the competition on Saturday in transit through Beijing. In short track, the country's honor will be defended by Pena Atayev, gold medalist of the international youth tournament in Pyeongchang in 2015. In women's singles figure skating, two-time champion of Turkmenistan Larisa Vakhitova and participant of the first winter international sports games "Children of Asia" in 2019 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Ayna Ekaeva will perform.

In addition to new disciplines, Turkmenistan is also represented in the hockey tournament, where the national team led by Ilyas Veliyev will play in group “C” against teams from Hong Kong, India and Macau. The Turkmen hockey players will play their first match on February 5 against the Macau team.

The upcoming Games in Harbin will be a record-breaking event in terms of the number of participants – 1,275 athletes from 34 countries are expected to arrive, competing for 64 sets of medals in 11 sports.