KAZAN/VLADIVOSTOK – Today on January 25th when we celebrate Russian Students’ Day – the Russian leg of Kazan Summer Universiade 2013 Torch Relay began in Vladivostok.
The official ceremony took place on Russky Island, near the new Campus of the Far Eastern Federal University.
The event was attended by Igor Shuvalov, 1st Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation; Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the Republic of Tatarstan; Sergei Shelpakov, Deputy Minister of Sport of the Russian Federation; Vladimir Miklushevsky, Governor of the Primorsky Territory; Oleg Matytsin, FISU 1st Vice-President & President of the Russian Student Sports Union; Igor Pushkarev, Mayor of Vladivostok; Ilsur Metshin, Mayor of Kazan; Vladimir Leonov, Director General of the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate; Far Eastern Federal University Rector Sergey Ivanets, other officials, students, volunteers and Vladivostok citizens.
In his address to the students of Far Eastern Federal University Oleg Matytsin stated that it is an unique opportunity and a great joy to welcome the Torch Relay in Russian on Student’s Day and expressed his hope that the Flame will be a symbol of sports, education and culture.
Oleg Matytsin receives the flame from Anatoly Vasilyev of the Sedov
Oleg Matytsin was to light up the first torch on Russian soil and pass it to the first Torchbearer – famous Russian ice hockey player Aleksey Morozov, captain of Ak Bars Kazan, silver medallist at the 1998 Winter Olympiс Games in Nagano, two-time IIHF World Champion and Kazan 2013 Ambassador.
Shuvalov, Miklushevsky, Minnikhanov & Metshin
Other sports stars took part in Torch Relay in the city as well. Among them were Dinara Safina, the famous tennis player and second Russian after Maria Sharapova to be ranked World No. 1 by the WTA Tour; Kamilla Gafurzyanova, 2012 London Summer Olympic Games team foil silver medallist and Shenzhen 2012 Summer Universiade champion; Irina Shadrina, the popular Rossiya 2 TV Channel presenter; Ekaterina Gamova, the legendary Russian volleyball player, two-time FIVB World Champion, recipient of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 1st and 2nd class.
Ice Hockey star Aleksey Morozov
Russian TV channel Rossiya 24 provided live coverage of the event. There will also be a live television space bridge between Kazan and Vladivostok. It will link the construction site of the 45,000-seat football stadium in Kazan where Farid Mukhametshin, Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan, and Yuliya Zaripova, the famous Olympic athletics champion and Kazan 2013 Ambassador, will be present as special guests, with the Torch Relay participants in Vladivostok.
60 Torchbearers carried the Flame on Day 1 of the Russian leg of the Universiade Torch Relay. Tatiana Zubareva, a student of Far Eastern Federal University and Kazan 2013 volunteer, travelled the final distance of the Flame’s route in Vladivostok and light the City Cauldron.
Mukhametshin with Kazan 2013 volunteers
In the afternoon the lantern with the Universiade Flame will be solemnly put inside a special display case in the main building of the Far Eastern Federal University where it will be stored for a month before it continues its journey to Khabarovsk, the next stop of the Torch Relay on the way to Kazan.
On its route from west to east, the Flame will be carried through Russia’s 30 top student cities and pass through 43 municipal districts of the Republic of Tatarstan, finishing its journey in Kazan on July 6th, on the day of the 2013 Summer Universiade Opening Ceremony.
(Kazan 2013 Media Dept./RSSU)
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