Altai kuresh

The national wrestling of the Altaians.

Names among the peoples

About

Kuresh is the national wrestling of the Altaians. In the past the wrestlers wrestled in everyday clothes — soft leather shoes, trousers and a shirt; today they tie a cloth belt and wear national sports dress made for wrestling.

Kuresh is one of the national sports contested at El-Oiyn, the inter-regional festival of the Altai people. Besides the weight classes, tournaments also hold an absolute championship in which weight is not counted.

History

As N. Ekeev writes, in the outlook of the Altaians kuresh is not only a game and a contest but an art; gifted wrestlers were always held in honour. Wrestling is widely reflected in the heroic epics: in Altyn-Bize, Maadai-Kara and other tales the heroes defeat the enemy's strongmen in wrestling. Only men wrestled, in pairs: by agreement they either stripped to the waist and tied on the sashes the opponent gripped, or stayed in their clothes. There were no weight classes; the winner was the one who overcame everyone, or who won the most bouts.

Several kinds of wrestling came down to the twentieth century: the kinds of wrestling with sashes, wrestling in a fur coat (tyeng tartysh), with a bare torso (koldomosh), on a saddle-cloth (tokumda kuresh) and free wrestling (tyaiym kuresh). Altai wrestling was first set in order and described by M. K. Kalanakov, a master of sport and coach in Greco-Roman wrestling (1980).

Peoples

Research: Vasif Namazov, Turan Games Concept

Sources

  1. Алтай куреш (борьба) — «Алтай-тур»
  2. Эл-Ойын украсят скачки и борьба на чубарых лошадях — «Новости Горного Алтая»
  3. Н. Екеев, Традиционные спортивные игры алтайцев (общая характеристика) — Türk Halklarının Geleneksel Spor Oyunları, Bişkek, 2015, s. 229–233
  4. İllüstrasiya: süni intellektlə hazırlanıb, Komitə təqdim edib