Tyumen gives bread-and-salt welcome to Universiade Torch Relay
The Flame of the 27th World University Summer Games has arrived in Tyumen, the oldest city of Siberia, on May 17. It will be the 7th city for the Universiade Torch Relay to pass through on Russian soil.
The total length of the Tymen leg of the Torch Relay is 6,000 metres. 33 best students of the region, athletes, volunteers, as well as representatives of the 2013 Summer Universiade's partner companies were selected from hundreds of nominations to become the people who will carry the Universiade Flame on its journey around the city. The Torch Relay will start off near the building of the Tyumen Region Government, with the finish line being in Fighters for Revolution Square where the City Cauldron of the 27th World University Games will be lit. Airat Siabagatullin, Minister of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan, is expected to attend the ceremony as a special guest.
The Universiade Torch Lighting Ceremony took place at Paris-Sorbonne University where the first ‘World Student Games’ were held in 1923. The ceremony was attended by Claude-Louis Gallien, President of FISU (International University Sports Federation); Barthélémy Jobert, President of Paris-Sorbonne University; Mintimer Shaimiev, Tatarstan's first president and current State Counsellor; Oleg Matytsin, President of the RSSU (Russian Student Sports Union); José Savoye, President of the French University Sports Federation; Vladimir Leonov, Director General of the Kazan 2013 Executive Committee. The honour to kindle the Flame was awarded to five students of Paris-Sorbonne University representing five continents of the world: Europe (France), Asia (China), America (Mexico), Africa (Egypt) and Australia. During the Lighting Ceremony they touched the torches in the FISU colours of red, yellow, green, blue and black together, uniting the separate fires into one flame, thus symbolising the unity of all nations of the world under the aegis of sports.
The historic moment in the Torch Relay arrived when the Universiade Flame embarked on a round-the-world voyage aboard the world’s largest bark - the tall ship Sedov. On July 15th, the Torch was handed over to a team of navy cadets – the Keepers of the Universiade Flame. Travelling aboard the bark Sedov, the Torch covered 45,000 nautical miles and repeated the route of greatest sailors of all times. After touching down on Russian soil, the Universiade Flame will be carried by 2,013 Torchbearers, passing from one bearer to another, for a distance of over 150,000km.
The Russian leg of the Universiade Torch Relay started off on January 25, on Russian Students' Day. Travelling from east to west, the Flame will be carried through Russia’s 30 top student cities such as Khabarovsk, Yakutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Tyumen, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Arkhangelsk, Stavropol, Pyatigorsk, Sochi, Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg, Vladimir, Moscow, Perm, Izhevsk, Kirov, Nizhny Novgorod, Yoshkar-Ola, Cheboksary, Ulyanovsk, Saransk, Penza, Saratov, Samara, Orenburg, Ufa and pass through 43 municipal districts of the Republic of Tatarstan, finishing its odyssey in Kazan on July 6, on the opening day of the 2013 Summer Universiade. 2,013 Torchbearers will carry the Universiade Torch as it will make its way all over the country.