2013 SU Update: FISU Flag lays Course for Towns of Tatarstan

KAZAN – The ceremony honoring the participants and organizers of this year’s two largest projects aimed to promote the ideas of the 27th Summer Universiade – the ceremony of transferring theFISU Flag from China to Russia and the ‘Universiade in Your City!’ FISU Flag Relay – took place in the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate.

The solemn event brought together leaders and activists of two largest partner organizations of the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate (Student League and Academy of Creative Youth of the Republic of Tatarstan), leading performers and bands of the republic, such as the State Ensemble of Song and Dance, Murakami rock band, U13 dance project, winners of the Faces of the Universiade project and UNI-elite laureates Matvey Kozin, Mitya Burmistrov and many others.

We would like to remind you that during the period of the 26th Summer Universiade in Shenzhen Tatarstan’s young talents showcased in all its beauty a cultural and creative diversity of their country within the Russian House’s events and the presentation of Kazan as the host city of the next Summer Universiade. After that, in September-October they took part in the largest youth project of the country, the FISU Flag Relay. Artists and young activists of the republic visited 16 cities and actively promoted the ideas of the 27th World University Summer Games in Kazan.

In his welcome address to young activists that represented Tatarstan with all dignity at the two largest PR projects of Kazan 2013, 1st Deputy Director General of the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate Azat Kadyrov thanked them for their hard work:«We’ve already succeeded to do a huge amount of work, we’ve presented the host city of the 2013 Summer Universiade to the whole world, we’ve managed to position the Games 2013 as the All-Russian project and involve thousands of young people from all over the country in the preparations of the Games. However, now we are to face even more challenging stages of implementation and we do hope that you’ll continue working with us.» After his speech, Azat Kadyrov handed letters of gratitude and presents to the young partners of Team 2013 and once again stressed the significance of the Universiade Directorate’s cooperation with Tatarstan’s active youth.

Special thanks were extended by participants of the FISU Flag Relay to Larisa Sulima, Chief of Staff of the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate and FISU Flag Relay project leader. «Thanks to your belief in the successful outcome of our project, your care and support, we succeeded to cover such a complicated route, make friends, find new partners and write our own chapter in the history of international student community», said Timur Suleimanov, President of the Tatarstan Student League.

Murakami‘s lead singer Dilyara Vagapova, so far the first and the only Kazan 2013 Ambassador of the cultural background, said in her thank-you speech: «It’s a great honor for me to represent my native city and republic during the preparations for such a significant project as the 2013 Summer Universiade. Despite the fact that the Russian stage of the FISU Flag Relay has already ended, we all live with plans and ideas of the preparations for the Games in Kazan and hope to make our own contribution to staging this grand event in our homeland.»

For her part, Chief of Staff of the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate and FISU Flag Relay project leader Larisa Sulima thanked the participants of the project for their professionalism and patriotic feelings that became the key to the FISU Flag Relay’s brilliant success. «Together we infected the whole country with the positive spirit of the World University Summer Games, and now there are new horizons ahead of us – the FISU Flag Relay lays a course for Tatarstan. While having hundreds of partners throughoutRussia, we shouldn’t forget about boys and girls in our republic that dream of becoming part of the international historical event,» said Larisa Sulima.

(Source: Media Department of Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate)