Acting President of the International Kurash Association, Ziyoviddin Khodjiniyazov, held an official meeting in Santo Domingo with Luis Mejía Oviedo, President of Centro Caribe Sports, the governing sports organization for Central America and the Caribbean.
Established in 1924, Centro Caribe Sports is today a prestigious sports organization uniting the National Olympic Committees of 35 countries across the Central American and Caribbean region. The first Central American and Caribbean Games were held in 1926 and are recognized as one of the world’s oldest regional multi-sport events.
This year, the 25th Central American and Caribbean Games are being held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from 24 July to 8 August. Within the framework of the Games, the Pan-American Kurash Championships are also being organized, serving as an important platform to demonstrate Kurash’s international potential and its readiness to be included in major multi-sport events.
During the meeting, Luis Mejía Oviedo particularly acknowledged the rapid development of Kurash throughout the Pan-American region. He emphasized that the Pan-American Kurash Championships and the international seminars organized alongside the competition had been conducted at a highly professional organizational level, noting that these events clearly demonstrated Kurash’s potential to become part of the programme of major multi-sport Games.
The parties also held comprehensive discussions on the prospects of officially including Kurash in the programme of the 2030 Central American and Caribbean Games.
According to Luis Mejía Oviedo, discussions regarding the programme of the 2030 Games are still ongoing, and Kurash has strong prospects of being officially included in the programme as a recognized sport. He highly praised Kurash’s international development, its modern governance system, and the growing popularity of the sport across the region.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the parties agreed to continue consistently implementing joint initiatives aimed at further developing Kurash throughout the Central American and Caribbean region, strengthening cooperation, and securing the sport’s rightful place in the programme of major multi-sport Games.
The meeting was also attended by Jaime Casanova, President of the Pan-American Kurash Union; Bakhtiyor Kadirov, First Deputy Chairman of the Kurash Federation of Uzbekistan; and Sardorbek Karimov, Assistant to the Chairman.
