SPORTS NEWS

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia /MONTSAME/ The president of the Mongolian National Olympic Committee (MonNOC) D.Zagdsuren received on Friday a team members that won a bronze medal in the 3x3 beach basketball event in the 3rd Asian Beach Games took place on June 16-22 in Haiyang, China, and authorities of the Mongolian Basketball Association (MoBA). The national team of Mongolia for basketball participated for the first time in the Asian Beach Games. Comprised Sh.Sedbazar, O.Sergelen and D.Delgernyam, the team defeated its opponents of Bhutan, Qatar, India and Bangladesh. At the play-off round, the Mongolia's team was defeated by Thailand's team. At the meeting, the MonNOC president underlined an importance of team sports for keeping healthy lifestyle of people and developing co-operation. He noted that basketball is the most successful sport in Mongolia among team sports, and stressed that Mongolia's basketball team has to gain success at Asian arena. In turn, the MoBA's secretary-general B.Dashdorj thanked the MonNOC for giving assistance to developing basketball in Mongolia, and promised to make efforts to develop this sport further. ** ** ** The Marathon of Steppe 2012 named after the Mayor of Ulaanbaatar city will take place on July 22 in the Tsonjin Boldog in Tov aimag. The long-running contest will run in various age and distance categories, for example, boys and girls aged up to 15 will cover one kilometer way, the 40-60 years old runners--five km, runners above 60 years old--three km. Young runners will run in two distance categories of 10 km and 21 km. With a purpose to advertise public physical culture and sports to people, the marathon contest will attract runners from the city as well as foreign tourists. B.Khuder