At the Asian Games in Japan, Kazakhstan's team has now gone two straight days adding only five bronze medals to its tally, while rivals keep up the pace: Uzbekistan has overtaken the Kazakh athletes in the unofficial medal standings, infohub.kz reports.

On Saturday, rowers reached the third step of the podium three times, all in the 500-meter events. Bronze medals went to kayakers Stella Sukhanova and Dmitry Kholmogorov, as well as canoe double crew Sergey Yemelyanov and Rufina Iskakova. The kayak double of Olga Shmeleva and Artyom Tereshchenko finished just off the podium.

The women's team of Arina Malinovskaya, Sofia Shulzhenko and Yelizaveta Bezrukova won bronze in the 50-meter small-bore rifle three positions event.

Fencers Artyom Sarkisyan, Nurmukhammed Zhailybai, Nazarbai Sattarkhan and Kuanysh Ergashbai took third in the men's team sabre. For Sarkisyan, this is his second bronze of the current competition.

Track and field athletes were less impressive. Naturalized Kenyan Shadrack Koech finished 7th in the marathon. Maria Shuvalova also placed seventh in the 400 meters. Ivan Ivanov was ninth in shot put, and Aiana Bolatbekkyzy finished tenth in the 1500 meters.

Weightlifter Beksultan Aitbai took seventh place in the up to 75 kg category.

Boxers Makhmud Sabyrkhan and Nurbek Oralbai advanced to the quarterfinals. Viktoria Grafeva, not without help from the judges, lost to Olympic champion Lin Yu-ting, whose gender eligibility is disputed.

The women's handball team, wrapping up its Asian Games campaign, defeated Uzbekistan. The water polo team, by contrast, has just started in Japan, losing its first Group A match to the hosts.

After Day 7 of the Asian Games, the top of the unofficial medal standings (China, Japan, South Korea) remains unchanged. Uzbekistan and Thailand have caught up with Kazakhstan in gold medals. And our neighbors have even overtaken our athletes in silver medals. Iran and Bahrain trail Kazakhstan by just one gold. It's time to end the "bronze age."

The 20th Summer Asian Games in Japan officially opened on September 19. The multi-sport event, featuring athletes from 45 countries, will award 460 sets of medals: 217 for men, 204 for women and 39 in mixed events. Kazakhstan's team at the 2026 Asian Games will consist of 558 athletes competing in 35 sports.