Ilsur Metshin: “Kazan has good opportunities for mass sports”

(KZN.RU, November 13, Anton Nozdrin). In the winter period 2017-2018, 10 championships, 13 tournaments and sports events will be held in Kazan on 9 winter sports: hockey, cross-country skiing, winter fishing, winter triathlon, ski orienteering, speed skating, figure skating, and ice climbing. The Winter Kazan Cup will take place not in closed premises but on snow. Svetlana Vostrikova, the chairman of the Committee for Physical Culture and Sports, reported this today on the Business Monday in the Kazan City Hall.

She noted that this year the triathlon is a new direction. “Fans of the winter triathlon will have a multi-race consisting of a combination of running, cycling (cross-country) and skiing in a continuous sequence”, said Svetlana Vostrikova. According to her, it is planned to hold an open championship in January at the stadium “Lokomotiv”.

The city tournament of the All-Russian competitions “Golden Puck” will start in December. This season, the game will be held only on open hockey boxes, assigned to general educational institutions. Participation will be accepted by teams in three age categories from 10 to 15 years. According to the chairman of the profile committee, sports teams are formed on the basis of their schools, which allow attracting the interest not only of the participants but also of the fans.

Svetlana Vostrikova told that this year the Kazan Winter Football Championship will take place not in closed premises but on the street. Snow in the stadiums will be specially tamped for this purpose. Fans of skiing in the forthcoming winter will have the All-Russia mass ski race “Ski Track of Russia” and the 51st Kazan ski marathon.

S. Vostrikova called the preparation of sports infrastructure for the winter season and the creation of favorable conditions for the physical culture and sports for the population one of the main tasks of the sports committee. According to her, 10 ski bases, 19 skating rinks with rentals will work for the citizens in the forthcoming winter, and ice will be poured on 78 plastic hockey boxes. Special routes and rentals of skis, snowboards, snowmobiles, tubing in the all-season city-resort “Sviyazhskie Holmy” in the settlement Nagorny, Glubokoye Lake, on the streets Dubravnaya and Bratiya Kasimovy will be operating for fans of extreme sports.

In the conclusion, Svetlana Vostrikova said that winter sports are popular among Kazan residents. More than 3 thousand participants are engaged in winter sports in children's and youth sports schools. In addition, the Kazan team won first place in the XI Spartakiade of students of the RT.

Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, marked that the main task is to ensure the availability of sports for the population. "Today Kazan has great opportunities for mass sports. There are about two dozen indoor hockey arenas, 80 open boxes. I think the citizens will appreciate the new illuminated ski runs in the parks Pobedy and Krylya Sovetov, which were added to the five already existing ones this season”, said I. Metshin.

The Mayor noted that many significant sports events will take place in the city, participants of which will be residents of other cities. “It’s becoming the norm that non-residents come to our events. I think that the winter triathlon will also gather a big nonresident group. We need to be prepared for this”, said the head of the city and instructed the Ministry Internal Affairs of the RF in Kazan together with the heads of district’s administrations to pay special attention to safety in parks and squares and in places od must staying in the winter time.

Ilsur Metshin noted that information about the work of each sports ground and its schedule should be available and constantly updated. The portal KZN.RU publishes information about the operation of skating rinks, ski bases, and hockey boxes.