2013 SU Update: Kirov says Farewell to FISU Flag Relay

KIROV – The ‘Universiade in Your City!’ concert which took place at theTheatrical Square of the city ofKirov crowned the Volga Federal District stage of the FISU Flag Relay.

The concert started with the solemn ceremony of the FISU Flag handover. Larisa Sulima, Chief of Staff of the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate, and Airat Kanafiev, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan, passed the flag to Deputy Prime Minister of the Kirov Region Sergey Scherchkov, Acting Mayor of Kirov Sergey Ulitin, Rector of the Vyatka State University Valentin Pugatch and Kazan 2013 Ambassador Alisa Skopina.

Alisa Skopina is a master of sports in powerlifting, world champion in bench pressing and powerlifting. At present she is trying her hand in hand-to-hand combat, in the near future she plans to reach a qualifying standard in this sport. Apart from her sport career, the newly appointed Kazan 2013 Ambassador is actively involved in social activities; Alisa organizes tournaments for young athletes. «I am very curious to try on the role of a Kazan 2013 Ambassador. Unfortunately, I’ve never participated in the Universiade, but I can imagine how interesting and significant they are for athletes. I’m confident that I will be able to become a worthy member of Team 2013, at least based on my experience of managing and staging competitions of various scale, I can say that I will be able to make my personal contribution to the delivery of the Games», Alisa Skopina said with confidence.

Following the solemn ceremonies, the officials took part in the inauguration of the ‘Flowers of the Universiade!’ flowerbed and left their wishes of success to the future Russian national team of Kazan 2013 at the ‘Greeting Card 2013’ event. For the record, during their entire length of the FISU Flag Relay Kazan 2013 volunteers inaugurated 13 flowerbeds, collected 15,000 votes for peace and 13 posters with best wishes addressed to Russian athletes.

The next stage of the FISU Flag Relay will be implemented inSaint Petersburg, Moscow, Vladivostok and Ekaterinburg.

(Source: Media Department of Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate)