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Russian Canoe Sprint Championships begin in Kazan

13.08.2014 18:13 — Sport

The opening ceremony and first preliminary rounds took place in the Rowing Centre, Kazan.

A press conference dedicated to the start of the event was held shortly before the opening ceremony and was attended by Deputy Head of the Sports Development Department at the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of the Republic of Tatarstan Andrey Surdakov, representative of the Russian Canoe Federation Nikolay Mordvin and head coach of the Tatarstan canoe sprint team Takhir Kamaletdinov.

"We'd like to thank the Russian Canoe Federation for entrusting us with hosting such a major event. We are pleasantly surprised by the number of competitors - 336 athletes representing 29 regions of the Russian Federation. It's a large number. I would like to express my gratitude to President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov who always encourages hosting rowing events. We hope there will be a beautiful and tough struggle," Surdakov said.

Representative of the Russian Canoe Federation Nikolay Mordvin noted that apart from staging the national U19 canoe sprint tournament on August 12-18 Kazan will host another sporting events.

"Kazan will host three competitions at once - the Russian U19 Canoe Sprint Championships, all-Russian junior competition and Russian junior dragon boat racing championship. The Ministry of Sports of the Republic of Tatarstan now has dragon boats without which there would be no competition. As recently as last week, the ICF Canoe Sprint World Сhampionships concluded in Moscow. It's good to know that students of Volga Region Academy became champions and contributed points to the Republic of Tatarstan," said Mordvin.

According to Takhir Kamaletdinov, Kazan is ready to host major rowing events as often as possible.

"I hear a lot of positive feedback from my colleagues about our Rowing Centre. The Universiade Village, where most athletes were accomodated, leaves a good impression as well. Most people feel that more events should be held in Kazan but the decision is the Russian Rowing Federation's to make. I am sure that if the Federation says 'yes', Kazan and the Rowing Centre will keep their end up," said Kamaletdinov.

During the opening ceremony, Director General of OAO Kazan Oil Extraction Plant and NEFIS Group of Companies Mikhail Syrovatsky handed over dragon boats with a total cost of over 1 million rubles to President of the Canoe Sprint Federation of Tatarstan Artem Sidorov. The noble gesture was initiated by State Duma deputy Irek Boguslavsky. This charitable action made it possible to host a dragon boat racing event on the sidelines of the Russian U19 Canoe Sprint Championships. At the moment Tatarstan's Canoe Sprint Federation owns four such boats.

"Dragon boat racing is a very interesting and action-packed sport. In East Asia, this sport is very popular. In terms of action, our competitions are equal to those held in Asia. It's a well-coordinated teamwork of 10 people, which draws admiration. The competition is loud and full of action. Such events should be held more often. It is very intertaining in terms of visual presentation. It will draw crowds to our sport. Four crews will compete in the final of the Russian championship, and the total number of participants is to be announced any time soon," Takhir Kamaletdinov commented on dragon boat racing.

"People of all ages and social classes can compete in these boats. To run one such boat, 10 people can gather and easily row it," Mordvin concluded.

The first finals of the Russian Canoe Sprint Championships will be held on August 13.