2013 Summer Universiade Flame to travel the Five Continents

KAZAN – The torch of the 27th Summer Universiade will be carried through the five continents and 27 top university centres of Russia. The Universiade Torch Relay concept was approved on June 4th during the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate Supervisory Board Meeting under the chairmanship of Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko.

Igor Sivov, Deputy Director General of the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate and Kazan 2013 Opening/Closing Ceremonies Executive Director, introduced members of the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate Supervisory Board to the concept of the 2013 Summer Universiade Torch Relay. According to the offered concept, the Kazan 2013 Summer Universiade Torch Relay promises to be the largest in FISU history and will be launched a year before the 2013 Games.

The place where the Universiade Flame will be lit is yet to be chosen, two locations are under consideration so far: Paris (France) where the World Student Games were staged in 1923 and Turin (Italy) that played host to the 1st World University Summer Games in 1959. The final decision will be made by FISU President Claude-Louis Gallien.

The Universiade Torch relay will be arranged in two phases. The first one is scheduled for July-November, 2012. The Kazan 2013 Flame will travel across five continents and will go through such cities as Brest (France), Lausanne (Switzerland), Vladivostok (Russia), Sydney (Australia), Singapore (Singapore), Cairo (Egypt) and San Francisco (USA). Large-scale international celebrations and university festivals will be organised at each destination where the Universiade Torch Relay will arrive.

The second phase of the Universiade Torch Relay will start in 2013 and the Flame will be carried through Russia’s 27 top university centres in the following order: Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibisrk, Tyumen, Ekaterinburg, Izhevsk, Perm, Ufa, Orenburg, Samara, Ulyanovsk, Saratov, Penza, Saransk, Nizhny Novgorod, Cheboksary, Yoshkar-Ola, Kirov, Rostov-on-Don, Pyatigorsk, Sochi, Arkhangelsk, Saint Petersburg, Moscow and Kazan. It is expected that the Universiade Torch will cover a distance of more than 150,000 kilometres and a symbolical number of 2013 torchbearers will carry it, passing it from hand to hand.

Predictably, the Universiade Torch Relay will come to an end on July 6th, 2013 during the solemn Opening Ceremony of the 27th Summer Universiade. The Kazan 2013 Flame will be burning for 12 days and will be extinguished at the Closing Ceremony.

Chair of the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate Supervisory Board Vitaly Mutko particularly noted the originality of the presented concept and impressiveness of its size and scope.

(Source: Media Department of Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate)