In the same way that foreign journalists travelling to Ireland to cover the Irish soccer team often have to dig a bit deeper to find a sport that the nation properly excels at, we've been trawling the Kazakhstani sports blogosphere all day here at Balls to uncover what arouses the sporting passions of the people of Kazakhstan. That was where we discovered the sport of kyz-kuu, which was described as the national sport of the country on tumblr (so it must be true). Here's Dom Joly of the Independent's take on it from 2010:
This is essentially kiss chase on horseback. A woman sets off on a horse at a gallop. After a small delay, a group of men, also on horseback gallop after her. The aim of the game is to catch the girl and kiss her while both are still at full gallop. Any man that does not manage to catch and kiss the girl is then whipped by her all the way back to the starting line. I know you think I'm making this up ... but I'm not. The game has its origins in the nomadic traditions of raiding another party of nomads and stealing their women. I fully expect to see this sport on television very soon. I would make it a celebrity format and the girl being chased would be a heavily disguised Keith Chegwin.
That's right: women whipping men. Some photos of the strange sport are below:
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