Alan Kurmangaliyev won among 15-year-old players at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Youth Contender in Havirov, Czech Republic, Olympic.kz reports.
Kurmangaliev took first place in the subgroup after defeating players from Qatar, Poland, Ukraine and Bulgaria. In the finals, his opponent was Japanese Kazuki Yoshiyama, to whom Alan lost at the previous WTT Youth Contender tournament in Spain on May 27, where he came second. The young player got even this time around with a victory score of 3:1.
In the U15 Boys Singles category, Alan beat Rawad Alnaser (Qatar) 3:1 in the 1/16 finals, Marcel Blaszczyk (Poland) 3:0 in the 1/8 finals, Mykhailo Lovha (Ukraine) 3:0 in the quarterfinals, and Yoan Velichkov (Bulgaria) 3:1 in the semi-finals.
Currently, World Table Tennis ranks Alan 42nd in the youth category and 330th among seniors.
Alan's teammates, Sanzhar Zhubanov, Iskender Kharki and Sagantay Kurmambayev, managed to pass the group stage but did not proceed past the 1/32 final stage.
Boys and girls aged 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19 from 30 countries compete in the WTT Youth Contender.
