Wrestler shot dead amid Olympic leadership battle

Gunmen shot dead a prominent Kyrgyz wrestler seeking to head the ex-Soviet republic's national Olympic committee, police said yesterday.

The killing of Raatbek Sanatbayev, a Greco-Roman wrestler and one of the country's most successful athletes, is the latest in a series of high-profile murders in Kyrgyzstan in recent months.

Mr Sanatbayev, 44, was shot on Sunday in the capital, Bishkek.

The murder comes amid a fierce battle to head the Olympic committee. Its previous head, Bayaman Erkinbayev, was killed in September amid an alleged dispute over illegal drugs in prisons.

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