Kazan gears up for Heads of Delegation Meeting

And again Kazan is getting ready to welcome guests. Heads of Delegation (HoD) of more than 120 nations will gather in the host city of the 2013 Summer Universiade on April 3-7. Sports ministers and heads of National University Sports Federations (NUSFs) from the United States, Canada, China, Latin America, Africa, Asia, European Union and CIS are expected to arrive in Kazan for the HoD Meeting.

The Heads of Delegation Meeting is a long-standing FISU tradition aimed at making sports managers from all over the world familiar with facilities provided for athletes by the Kazan 2013 Summer Universiade organisers. The OC will give an insight into the whole range of services to be available to national delegations at Games time, take guests on a tour of the infrastructure and enable Heads of Delegation take a closer look at the security programme, living conditions and catering facilities, transportation services, etc. In fact, this meeting will play a crucial role in the NUSFs' decision making regarding the final confirmation of the competitors for the Games that's why the importance of a successful presentation of Kazan as the host city for the 27th Summer Universiade can hardly be overestimated. 

The HOD Meeting programme is very busy. During their five-day stay in Kazan, Heads of Delegation will view sports venues for the 2013 Summer Universiade, visit the Universiade Village, and take a glance into services to be offered to members of national delegations during the Games. The FISU Family led by its President Claude-Louis Gallien will also arrive in Kazan to take part in the event. 

A special focus will be made on the visa-free entry to Russia for athletes participating in the Summer Universiade. Brought into force by the Russian Presidential Decree, this regime is introduced for the first time in the history of World University Games. During his recent visit to Kazan, President of Russia Vladimir Putin offered to apply the visa-free entry to all major international sporting events due to be held in Russia in the years to come. 

One of the most anticipated events of the HOD Meeting programme is the team draw which is scheduled for April 6. It will be finally decided what national teams will compete against each other in such spectacular sports as football, volleyball, basketball, water polo, etc. As we reported earlier, being the host of the Games, Team Russia was seeded No 1 in Group A. 

The 27th Summer Universiade will take place in Kazan in July 6-17, 2013. 13,500 athletes will take part in 351 medal events across 27 sports. As of today, 132 nations have already applied to compete in the 2013 Summer Universiade in the city of Kazan.