Biathlon, roller skiing and water polo: Ugra is ready to host international sport events

Today, on January 25, the government of Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous okrug have conducted a meeting dedicated to hosting major national and international sport events in Ugra.
The First Governor Deputy of Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous okrug Alexey Shipilov was the chairman of the meeting. The participants have discussed the process of getting ready to the IBU Cup Final 2017/2018, the Biathlon Championships of Russia, Ugra Ski Marathon and other events that will be conducted in the region this year, as well as organization of World Chess Olympiad 2929 in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Talking about IBU Cup Final, that will be held in Khanty-Mansiysk for the first time in history the executive director of the event Valery Radchenko has informed the audience that more than 200 athletes and 100 accompanying people will come to the city to participate in the competitions. “At the moment we got preliminary event registration entries from national federations. These countries are Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Moldova, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden and Ukraine. 81 athlete and 51 accompanying person. The registration will be open till February’26 so we expect more national federations to send their athletes here”.

Valery Radchenko has also announced that the official opening ceremony of the event will be held in cultural and entertainment center “Ugra-Classic”. After every race the awarding ceremonies will be held on Alexander Filipenko Winter Sports Center. The closing ceremony will also be conducted on the biathlon stadium.

The executive director of the Ugra Biathlon Federation Eduard Ryabov has told the audience about Biathlon Championships of Russia which will be held right after IBU Cup Final. “We except more than 300 athletes and officials to participate in the event. The fact that national biathlon championships have been hosted by Khanty-Mansiysk many times before confirms that our biathlon stadium is one of the best in the world. In October 2017 the officials of Ugra Biathlon Federation, Biathlon Union of Russia and International Biathlon Union has conducted an inspection of Winter Sports Center of Khanty-Mansiysk and decided to make some minor changed in the lay-out of its courses”.

The vice-president of Ugra Ski Federation Sergey Kryanin has told about the process of getting ready for VI Ugra Ski Marathon which will take place in Khanty-Mansiysk on April’08: “The registration has started in the end of December. In the first month we have received 320 applications. 190 people are going to ski 50K race. Applications were received from 20 regions of Russia. More than half of them are from Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous okrug”.

Apart from winter sports in the coming months Ugra is going to host other competitions as well. On February’27 the match of Women’s Water Polo World League will take place in Khanty-Mansiysk. “The game will be played in the swimming-pool of Ugra State University, — said the president of Ugra Swimming and Water Polo Federation Oxana Verevka. — These competitions is an important stage in the system of international FINA water polo tournaments. Khanty-Mansiysk will host a game between Russia and Spain. Our team is the bronze medalist of World Championship 2017 and bronze medalist of Olympics 2016. Our competitor – team of Spain – is one of the strongest teams in the world, they have silver of World Championship 2017. So the match is going to be very interesting, exciting and, as we are dealing with women’s water polo, very emotional”.

One more sport event of 2018 is FIS Roller Ski World Cup that will be held in Khanty-Mansiysk from August’31 till September’02. “Roller skiing is the summer variant of traditional skiing. It gives an opportunity to win not only to athletes from countries that are strong in winter sports but to those where snow is rare. First of all, this concerns Baltic and Balkan countries. Besides, among places where roller skiing is popular are Scandinavian countries, Italy, France and, of course, Russia. Our athletes are among the leaders of Roller Ski World Cup. For example, in 2017 Evgeny Dementiev from Khanty-Mansiysk have become a champion and silver medalist of Roller Ski World Championships” – told Sergey Kryanin.

The director of the department of sports of Ugra Igor Gubkin has ended the meeting with a positive conclusion: “At the moment the process of getting ready to host major international sport events in Ugra in 2018 goes in accordance with the plan. All the outstanding issues are solved quickly and in full”.