Kazan received the WorldSkills flag

(KZN.RU, August 18, Alina Berezhnaya). Today the relay race of the WorldSkills movement ended in Kazan. Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, and Josa De Goi, the vice president of strategic affairs and the chairman of the strategic development committee of WorldSkills International, took part in the ceremony of honoring the flag. It took place during the aviation festival “I choose the sky”. The head of the city noted that the capital of Tatarstan is ready to meet the participants of the 45th WorldSkills Championships Kazan 2019 from 22 to 27 of August, show them their hospitality, and hold competitions at a high level.

During the holiday, parachutists jumped with the flags of WorldSkills and WorldSkills Kazan 2019. After that, the MI-8 helicopter carried the WorldSkills Kazan 2019 flag over the waters of Kazanka River. Flag honoring continued at the Family Center “Kazan”. During the ceremony, Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of the capital of Tajikistan, applied a patch in the form of the Kazan sigil to the flag of the upcoming world championship.

“We are on the verge of another major even. Kazan is welcoming the world championship in professional excellence and its guests”, said Ilsur Metshin. “Participants from all over the world will come to the capital of Tatarstan, the best experts, craftsmen from 63 countries”. “We hope that the championship will give a new impetus to the development of working professions”, added the Mayor. “I want to believe that once again Kazan will show its hospitality to the whole world and will forever remain in the hearts of those to who we welcome!”

The WorldSkills flag relay is a project that brings together workers from all over the world, believes the vice president of WorldSkills International. “This project is unique, it resembles the Olympic torch relay. In March 2018, I had the opportunity to take part in it and put three stripes on the flag”, said Josa De Goi at the ceremony in the Family Center “Kazan”. He noted that he had already managed to talk with some experts and participants of WorldSkills Kazan 2019. “Everyone likes both the conditions that are created for them and Kazan”. He thanked Rustam Minnikhanov, the President of the RT, and Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, for organizing the championship. Josa De Goi also handed over the WorldSkills flag relay certificate to the head of the city.

 The WorldSkills flag relay race began in 2017 in Abu Dhabi during the closing of the 44th WorldSkills Championships. For two years, the flag visited the International Space Station in 20 countries. Stripes with logos of previous world championships were applied to the flag on each of them. After that, the WorldSkills flag relay movement continued across 24 subjects of Russia and 43 municipal districts of Tatarstan and ended in the capital of the republic.

Next time, Kazan residents and guests will see the flags of WorldSkills and WorldSkills Kazan 2019 at the opening ceremony, which will be held at the stadium “Kazan Arena” on August 22.

After the solemn part of the celebration, the attention of the audience turned to the sky, where the flight performance began under the clouds. One after another, general-purpose aircraft appeared in the “air arena”, followed by heavy aircraft: “Tu-95”, “Tu-160”, “Tu-22MZ”, “Tu-214” and helicopters “Ansat”, “Mi-8”, “An-2”, “Yak-12”, “Bell 206B3”. A special guest of the aviation festival was the aerobatic team “Rus”. Pilots demonstrated complex elements with loops, rebuilding and other maneuvers on jet training aircraft “L-39 Albatros”. Spectators froze in awe as aviators swept over their heads, leaving a smoke trail behind them.

Master classes on laying parachutes were organized for guests of the holiday “I choose the sky”. Young spectators designed polystyrene airplanes and competed in the launch of paper airplanes. In addition, a career guidance alley was organized, where 17 universities and enterprises of Kazan spoke about work in the aviation industry. The holiday ended with a concert.

Rustam Nigmatullin, the first deputy prime minister of the RT, Timur Alibaev, the head of the Aviastroitelny and Novo-Savinovsky districts’ administration, and others also attended the festival.