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Thousands mourn Kazakh skating Olympic medalist Denis Ten
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 [July 21, 2018]
By Mariya Gordeyeva
ALMATY (Reuters) - Thousands of
mourners packed into a sports hall to remember Kazakh figure skater
Denis Ten on Saturday, two days after he was stabbed to death in the
street in Almaty.
The Olympic bronze medalist, who turned 25 in June, was knifed in
broad daylight during a struggle with two men he had caught trying
to steal the mirrors on his car, police said.
Fans, some of them crying, carried flowers and held up banners with
the message "Forgive us, we couldn't save you" at the memorial
service at the capital's Palace of Sport.
They listened to a recording of a song he wrote soon before his
death, called "She Won't Be Mine".
"He was an outstanding personality, the real patriot of Kazakhstan,"
President Nursultan Nazarbayev said in a message read out at the
event.
Several sports personalities from Kazakhstan flew in from abroad,
including world middleweight boxing champion Gennady Golovkin who
trains in the United States.
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Ten became the first skater from Kazakhstan to win an Olympic medal
when he got his bronze at the 2014 Sochi games.
He was then dogged by injury, but competed this year at the
Pyeongchang Olympics where he was cheered by local fans because of
his Korean roots and finished 27th.
Two suspect have been detained over the killing, police said.
(Reporting by Mariya Gordeyeva; Writing by Vladimir Soldatkin;
Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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