Nearly 800 competitors in the Rector's Cup of the Volga Region University of Physical Culture, Sport and Tourism welcome Kazan again these days.
The opening ceremony was held today at one of the facilities of the university - the Burevestnik Swimming Pool.
The swimmers were welcomed by Minister of Sport of the Republic of Tatarstan Vladimir Leonov and Rafis Burganov, First Vice-President of the Russian Student Sport Union and Rector of the Sports University of Tatarstan.
Opening the competition, the rector thanked the event's partners and noted the increase in the number of participants in the 2nd All-Russian Swimming Competition.
"It is very pleasing that both geography and number of participants today are noticeably wider than at the first competitions. I wish you enjoy the swim, and wish all the swimmers to achieve the best results," said Rafis Burganov.
In turn, the Minister of Sport of the Republic of Tatarstan thanked the rector of Volga Region University for his support of sports initiatives.
"The Cup has become a tradition. I hope that the tradition will continue, especially as the University of Sport has every opportunity to do so. Many thanks to Rafis Timerkhanovich Burganov, the rector, who always treats such initiatives with great attention.
To all those who come to Kazan, to Tatarstan, I wish them to enjoy their time, but most importantly, to achieve the results they expect today. Let's move forward to the Rector's Cup only!" called upon Vladimir Leonov, Minister of Sport of the Region.
Children, pupils of sports schools and sports clubs and organisations from 27 regions of Russia as well as representatives of South Ossetia take part in the two-day competition. The peculiarity of the second Cup is the participation of students of higher education institutions of the country, in particular students of Volga Region University of Physical Culture, Sport and Tourism, Surgut State University, Russian State University of Justice, Moscow State Academy of Physical Culture, Sport and Tourism, Russian State University of Foreign Languages, Saint Petersburg State University, Russian Academy of National Economy, TISBI, KAI.
As Denis Pimankov, Director of the autonomous non-commercial organisation "Sports Training Centre" said after the opening ceremony, participation of teams of higher education establishments was important in terms of development of All-Russian competitions.
"The most important achievement is the participation of higher education institutions, and not only of specialized ones. Our aim is for this trend to continue in May. We want to move from individual competition to team competition, so that the spirit of competition between universities is fully present.
On the eve, we discussed the upcoming competitions and seminar programme in May. The next competition will no longer be a two-day event, but a three-day one, and the programme will be extended," said Denis Pimankov.
