Yernar Yerimbetov
Yernar Yerimbetov (born February 15, 1980 in Almaty) is a gymnast from Kazakhstan. He has been Kazakhstan's most successful gymnast of the new millennium.
Yernar trained under the old Soviet system until the USSR broke up. He first competed internationally as a youngster of 17 in the 1997 Junior International. He finished 24th All Around (AA) with a dismal 46.650.
Yernar steadily improved and won much acclaim at the 2001 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. He led the competition at the halfway point of the All Around competition. Then he saw his name on top of the scoreboard and got nervous. He bombed his last 3 events to finish 6th. He also made finals on Floor and Vault, finishing out of the medals.
One of the few all-around gymnasts left, he competed in many competitions during 2002 and 2003, winning a sash of Grand Prix medals. He won a gold on HB at the Grand Prix at Ghent, Belgium in 2005. He also won golds at the 2003 University Games, and Asian Championships. He continued to underperform at the 2002 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships making only the vault final and finished 6th.
At the 2003 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, he placed 4th AA, barely missing a medal. He had a small but extremely vocal cheering section, however. He qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics but again underperformed, placing 14th individual all-around after placing fifth in the qualification. In the parallel bars competition he finished eighth.
2005 was a down year for him, but 2006 had him making yet another world vault finals (4th after crashing a Yurchenko double pike). He won a bronze on vault at the 2006 Asian Games, and competed at the Grand Prix Final on vault as well. He fell there too, on the same vault. This time he over-rotated it.
Yernar has a wife and son in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
