All conditions to be created to hold FINA World Championships in Kazan. Part 2

All conditions needed for holding the successful FINA World Championships will be created in Kazan. In many respects, it will be thanks to the Team 2013, which brilliantly organised the 27th Summer Universiade. This statement was made by President of the International Swimming Federation (FINA), Dr Julio C. Maglione, during the inspection visit to Kazan.

The first visit of the FINA inspection team to Kazan lasted three days. The delegates inspected the sports facilities, where best athletes from around the world will compete for medals at the FINA World Championships in 2015. Today, on September 26, President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov had a meeting with representatives of the International Swimming Federation. Later, in an interview with reporters, Mr. Maglione highly commended the facilities and said that they meet all the requirements for a successful delivery of the World Championships. 

"We are talking about all venues, including the Kazan Arena Stadium, which also complies with all requirements. This is a stadium that can host not only football matches, but swimming competitions as well. Its capacity is very important for us: there will be spectators from around the world," said the FINA President.

For his part, FINA Executive Director Cornel Marculescu noted that it is the first time that the World Aquatics Championships will be held at the football stadium. "I am confident that all issues will be solved, because our architects and engineers will work closely with their local colleagues, and all questions will certainly be settled in time," he said.

The World Championships include swimming, open water swimming, diving and high diving, water polo, and synchronised swimming. The  The new discipline in the FINA, high diving, has been presented at the 20th FINA Technical Congress and has been officially included in the FINA World Championships programme starting from the 15th FINA World Championships 2013 in Barcelona, Spain. The high diving tournament will be held at a new site in Kazan.

"We've looked at various high diving venue options. We liked most the site on the embankment opposite the Farmers' Palace. I think that a little bit later we will make a computer model and see how it will look like. Next summer we plan to hold test events at the same location to see how it will work. We will hold the World Cup here and test all systems and services," said Director General Vladimir Leonov in his interview.

He also said that the concept of service development will be similar to the one that was implemented for the Summer Universiade. The official website of the FINA World Championships 2015, www.kazan2015.com, has already been launched. Apart from the Russian and English versions, the website will soon be available in the Tatar language as well. As for the ticketing programme, all the issues have already been resolved. It is scheduled to be launched about a year before the start of the World Championships. Plus, the capital of Tatarstan will host another contest - the World Masters Championships, which will feature veteran athletes from up to 200 countries.

"The FINA World Masters Championships have always been held separately, but recently it was decided to organise these competitions and the World Championships in the same city. The tournament is incredibly popular. What is especially interesting is that any person can take part in it," said Vladimir Leonov.

The 16th FINA World Championships will be held in Kazan from July 24 to August 9, 2015. The decision to hold it was announced on July 15, 2011 at the FINA General Congress in Shanghai.