2015 WU Update

David Cabello and Aurelio Ureña

GRANADA/LAUSANNE/BRUSSELS – Due to the economic crisis in Spain, the Organising Committee of the 27^th Winter Universiade in Granada had to adapt its proposal of venues that will be used for the Games in 2015. David Cabello, FISU EC member and Secretary-General of the 2015 WU Organizing Committee and Aurelio Ureña, General Coordinator of the OC presented an adapted programme to the members of the Steering Committee during their meeting in Brussels on November 21^st.

Afterwards, FISU Media had a chat with the two Spanish delegates regarding the proposed modifications. ‘The most important change is that we propose to have a sub-village for some of the ice sports. The idea is to move some of the ice competitions outside Granada to Antequera in the neighbouring province of Málaga at a distance of some 100 km but less than 50 minutes by car from Granada. The men’s and women’s ice hockey tournament will remain in Granada, all be it in a temporary venue’, Cabello explains. Originally, a permanent ice facility was planned as part of the legacy to the city. But with the economic crisis hitting the region and country, this proposal had to be abandoned. ‘The figure skating and short track speed skating competitions will be hosted in Antequera. With this sub-village we will be able to host the Games within the proposed dates which were agreed upon at the last FISU Executive Committee meeting’, David Cabello further explained.

The ice rink in Antequera will also be a temporary one to be set up in a multi-functional sport facility of the local high-performance centre which has sufficient seating capacity.

As far as La Ragua is concerned, the biathlon course is planned to be implemented in the national park. Since there are different stakeholders, some environmental issues emerged and the procedure to approve these issues follows a long and slow course. ‘It is difficult to point out the exact time frame’, Cabello said, ‘but we have set ourselves a deadline to start the works and to be sure that within this deadline we have time to build all the facilities we need to. The minimum time span to implement the works for the biathlon and cross-country venues will take less than six months, so we still have time if we can start the works next Summer. So we estimate we are on track to have the environmental approval on time to start these construction works.’

‘Now, taking in consideration a worst case scenario regarding the timing to start these works, we have a back-up solution, i.e. to move these competitions to Candanchu in the Pyrenees. However, we are confident the works can start in time’, Aurelio Ureña added.

The OC also thought of a plan B for the ice sports. ‘We could keep all the ice sports in Granada. But this implies an extension of the dates of the Universiade with 7 days to alternate figure skating and short track speed skating with ice hockey in the same venues. This plan was rather conceived in case we had to move further away from Granada for some of the ice sports, but with the choice of Antequera, which is not that far away, this is not necessary anymore’, Ureña explained.

In the meanwhile the prospect of hosting the Winter Universiade in the university city of Granada has stirred quite some interest among the university students who are signing up to become a volunteer during the Games. ‘With the introduction day we organize at the beginning of each academic year we already registered more than 300 volunteers without really campaigning for Universiade volunteers. So this is really looking promising’, Cabello confirmed.

C. Pierre, Press Officer