RUSAF president Dmitry Shlyakhtin: "Summer tournaments were great, and we need to go on like this"
Today the 99th Russian Athletics Championships begins at the Central Stadium in Kazan. The event brought together more than 1000 competitors from 76 regions of Russia. They will compete for 38 sets of medals. Based on the results of the tournament a national team to represent the country at the Europeans in August will be formed.
"Kazan is a hospitable city, I remember it since the 2013 Universiade," noted Russian Athletics Federation President Dmitry Shlyakhtin. "All the tournament that have ever taken place here were delivered with an outstanding organisation." "It is a pleasure to be in this city and at this stadium that provides all the needed conditions. I think the athletes will perform well and show good results, so we will have a team to compete in Europe," he added.
Dmitry Shlyakhtin said that there emerged a lot of questions during the preparation of the competition. "The trainings were hard but we accomplished this task. All summer tournaments were organised well. Now, these is the finishing touch and I hope all athletes will do the best they can," confidently added the Russian Athletics Federation President. He also said that it is not decided yet where the 100th anniversary championships will be held. Nevertheless, Dmitry Shlyakhtin admitted that Kazan is always several steps ahead of other cities when it comes to the infrastructure.
Kazan host the Russian Athletics Championships not for the first time. Khalil Shaikhutdinov, First Deputy Sport Minister of Tatarstan reminded that Kazan had already played stage to these tournaments in 2008 and 2014.
The best athletes of Russia and the world will compete here: Mariya Lasitskene, Ivan Ukhov, Aleksandr Menkov, Ekaterina Koneva, and many others.