Tatarstan PM Presents Kazan Bid to Host 2013 SU

On March 10th, a delegation from Kazan, headed by the Prime Minister of the Tatarstan Republic of the Russias Federation, visited the FISU Headquarters in Brussels to officially present the bid book of the city of Kazan to host the 2013 Summer Universiade.

It was the Prime Minister, Mr. Rustam Minnikhanov who presented the bid book to Mr. Claude-Louis Gallien, First Vice-President of FISU. Present also for Kazan were Mr. Ilsour Metshin, Mayor of Kazan and Marat Bariev, Minister for Sport, Youth and Tourism.

‘The Republic of Tatarstan and the city of Kazan officially declare that we are ready to host the 2013 Summer Universiade’, the Prime Minister announced. ‘We have learned a lot while bidding for the 2011 SU, however, sport is sport and we have to continue until we reach the finish.

The bid of Kazan is backed by the Russian Federation, which was presented by its Ambassador in Belgium, Mr. Vadim Borisovitsj Loekov.

After Mr. Minnikhanov handed over the bid book to Mr. Gallien, FISU Secretary-General Eric Saintrond sketched out the current situation of the bids for the 2013 Summer Universiade. Indeed, initially 5 cities were interested to bid to host the biggest FISU event for 2013. Besides Kazan, the city of Gwangju, Korea, also officially presented its bid. Canada withdrew and FISU is still awaiting reaction from Poznan, Poland and Murcia and Vigo, Spain. Deadline for the bids is March 15th, 2008.