Heads of delegations meet in Napoli

The home stretch for Summer Universiade 2019 starts now

There are just three months left before the 30th Summer Universiade starts in Italy’s sun-baked Campania region. Naples will host the Summer Universiade 2019 from 1-4 April and with less than 100 days to go, heads of the national delegations of around 50 countries have converged in the host city. This ‘Heads of Delegation Meeting’ is an important milestone ahead of the Universiade, one that helps make a fair assessment of the state of preparations.

Several visits to the competition venues and accommodations are scheduled during the week. Among them, the legendary San Paolo Stadium and the Palabarbuto in Naples; the Athletes’ Village at the Fisciano University Campus in Salerno and the Royal Palace in Caserta, which will host the archery finals amidst the picturesque scenery of Piazza Carlo III. 

The delegations will get a chance to familiarize themselves not only with the competition infrastructure, but also with the Campania region with its rich food and wine culture. Delegations have arrived from China, which will host the next summer Universiade in Chengdu in two years’ time and from countries as varied as the Virgin Islands and North Korea – which was the first one to register for the multidisciplinary event. Asia is also represented by Japan, Indonesia, Nepal and Malaysia. Among the large delegations in July will be the United States and Russia, where the 29th Winter Universiade concluded less than a month ago.

At a reception hosted bu FISU Americas, on the eve of the all-important meeting, FISU President Oleg Matytsin said, “I believe Napoli 2019 will make a great contribution to university sport. Italy is a beautiful, sunny country with fantastic culture, experience and knowledge. This year is also special because we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Universiade, which was organised for the first time in 1959 in Torino, Italy, and also the 70th aniversary of FISU itself. So it is a great responsibility on our collective shoulders, and I wish everyone  great success.”

The official programme of the HOD meeting concludes on the evening of 4 April, with the draws for the preliminary rounds of team sports. It is a long-awaited moment by the sports federations of the 124 participating countries. Well-known Italian athletes will conduct the draw.