KAZAKHSTAN HAS CALLED for an investigation into how a parody of its national anthem was mistakenly played at a sports medal ceremony in Kuwait on Thursday.

During the awarding of the gold medal to Kazakhstan’s Maria Dmitrienko at the Arab Shooting Championships in Kuwait, the spoof Kazakh anthem from Sacha Baren Cohen’s Borat film was mistakenly played in place of the real national anthem.

Her team member Oksana Stavitskaya later said that the president of the Asian Shooting Federation apologised to the team for the error.

(Video via TelegraphTV)

Stavitskaya said that the federation president Sheikh Salman al-Sabah told the team that the awards ceremony had been carried out by a third party firm under contract for the event.

A spokesman for Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry described the incident as “a scandal” and demanded a “thorough investigation”.

Earlier in the event, a mistake has been made regarding the Serbian national anthem. In  earlier this morning ski festival organisers in the Kazakh region Kostanay mistakenly played a Ricky Martin song in place of the Kazakh anthem.

- Additional reporting by the AP

Earlier: Kuwait a minute, that’s not our anthem >