Assel Kanay

Assel Kanay (Әсел Қанай; born 21 May 2001) is a Kazakhstani karateka. She won one of the bronze medals in the women's 61kg event at the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games held in Konya, Turkey and at the 2022 Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China. She is also a gold medalist in her event at the 2022 Asian Karate Championships held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Career
In November 2021, Kanay competed in the women's 68kg event at the World Karate Championships held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates where she was eliminated in her third match by Alizée Agier of France. Agier went on to win one of the bronze medals in the event. A month later, Kanay won one of the bronze medals in her event at the 2021 Asian Karate Championships held in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Kanay won one of the bronze medals in the women's 61kg event at the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games held in Konya, Turkey. She won two gold medals at the 2022 Asian Karate Championships held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She defeated Kymbat Toitonova of Kyrgyzstan in the gold medal match of the women's 61kg event.

In 2023, Kanay won one of the bronze medals in the women's 61kg event at the 2022 Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China. She defeated Atousa Golshadnezhad of Iran in her bronze medal match. She competed in the women's 61kg event at the 2023 World Karate Championships held in Budapest, Hungary where she was eliminated in her second match.