Kazan passed the WorldSkills to Shanghai

(KZN.RU, August 28, Alena Miroshnichenko). The 45th WorldSkills Championship Kazan 2019 ended with a large-scale and colorful ceremony at the stadium “Kazan Arena” yesterday. They summed up and awarded the best representatives of the working professions in the world. The winners were congratulated by Vladimir Putin, the President of the RF. Popular artists performed at the ceremony, including Levan Gorozia, Svetlana Loboda, and Philipp Kirkorov, and also solemnly passed the baton of the world championship to Shanghai.

In addition to more than 1300 championship participants from 63 countries, foreign delegations, residents of Kazan and other cities gathered at the stadium. Until the last moment, they did not know the results of the performances of young professionals in all 56 competencies of the championship, so the emotions of the guests of the stadium literally went wild. The awards were given to the winners by the heads of federal and republican departments, as well as members of foreign delegations and representatives of the WorldSkills movement. The award ceremony was conducted by famous presenters Yana Churikova and Anton Komolov.

According to the results of the Russian team, they managed to win 14 gold, 4 silver, and 4 bronze medals, as well as 25 medallions for professionalism. Thus, our representatives became the best in the competencies “Dry Construction and Plastering”, “Floristics”, “Information Security”, “Production of Products from Polymeric Materials”, “Cooking”, “Repair and Maintenance of Cars”, and others. In the general unofficial medal standings, only China overtook the Russian Federation. They have 35 medals of various denominations and 17 medallions for professionalism. Korea took third place with 15 medals and 26 medallions.

The ceremony also called the names of the most productive participants in each team (Best of nation), who scored the most points in their team. Among the Russian participants, the award was won by Mikhail Vorontsov, who performed in the competence “Milling Operations on Numerically Controlled Machines”.

Then, Simon Bartley, the President of WorldSkills International, presented the main prize named after Albert Widal, the founder of the movement. It was received by the representative of Russia Anastasia Kamneva, who became the winner in the competence “Laboratory and Chemical Analysis”.

It was raining heavily during the ceremony in Kazan, but this did not spoil the atmosphere of the holiday at the stadium. As the presenters noted, rain in Russia at such championships is for luck. V. Putin noted that Russia held a competition of the best professionals on the planet for the first time. It became the largest and most representative in the history of the WorldSkills movement, a vivid, unforgettable sight. All participants showed brilliant technique and skills in their competencies.

“I am sure our guests liked Kazan, a brilliant, energetically developing city with an ancient and young history. All conditions were created for an honest, fair fight, for friendly communication of spectators and participants from more than 60 countries of the world”, said the President of the RF.

He also reminded that for the first time in Kazan, schoolchildren competed in professional skill, competitions of future competencies also caused tremendous interest.

Simon Bartley, the President of WorldSkills International, joined the congratulations of the winners of the championship. He also thanked everyone who participated in organizing and conducting one of the largest events of this year: experts, volunteers, guides, managers.

“I want to express special gratitude to the leadership and residents of the country. The championship in Kazan is an example for everyone who will hold this event in the future”, said Mr. Bartley. He separately thanked Vladimir Putin, the President of the RF, Tatiana Golikova, the deputy prime minister of the RF, Rustam Minnikhanov, the President of the RT, Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan.

In conclusion, Simon Bartley once again congratulated all the participants of the championship and noted their success. “I personally met with the champions and I am confident that our future is in good hands!” he said.

The solemn part of the closing ceremony was interspersed with performances by famous artists: Levan Gorozia, the bands “Brio Sonores” and “Zventa Sventana”. At that time, real-time holograms by VR artists were projected on a gigantic inverted pyramid installed in the center of the stadium and on volumetric triangles around the perimeter of the stage.

Representatives of Shanghai, the city that will host the WorldSkills championship in 2021, also performed a creative dance for Kazan and city guests. The audience saw a colorful production, where the artists played on large drums and through dance introduced Chinese culture. A video presented the upcoming world championship, as well as a video message from Xi Jinping, the President of the People's Republic of China.

After a bright speech, Tatiana Golikova, the deputy prime minister, Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, and Robert Urazov, the general director of the Union of Young Professionals (WorldSkills Russia), handed over the flag of the WorldSkills movement to representatives of Shanghai.

The WorldSkills flag first passed the baton like the Olympic flame. After the 44th championship of professional excellence in 2017 in Abu Dhabi, the flag visited the International Space Station in 20 countries for two years. After that, the WorldSkills flag relay race continued across 24 subjects of Russia and 43 municipal districts of Tatarstan and ended in the capital of the republic. At the closing ceremony, Tatiana Golikova applied a patch of the logo of the current championship to the canvas.

The official part of the ceremony ended with vivid performances by Russian pop stars Igor Krutoy, Dimash Kudaibergen, Svetlana Loboda, and Philipp Kirkorov. Viewers were able to enjoy the vivid live performance of already loved and new artists' songs. In the finals, they admired the colorful fireworks that put a beautiful point in the history of the 45th WorldSkills Kazan 2019.