On the banks of the Volga and Kazanka

July 24 in Kazan, the 16th World Sports Championship will open

On July 24, the 16th World Sports Championship will open in Kazan.

This is a landmark event: as a kind of “small Olympiad” for the capital of Tatarstan was the Universiade, held in Kazan in 2013 , and now the World Sports Championship in some way precedes the World Cup, which should be held in Russia in 2018 . Moreover, Kazan was one of the cities where matches of the main football tournament of the four -year period will be held. That's just the Kazan-Arena stadium, which seems to be specifically built for the local football club Rubin and opened in 2013, is regularly “distracted” for events more serious than ordinary football matches. First, the opening and closing ceremonies of the Universiade were held here, and then the arena had to be released for swimmers. There is evidence that the condition of the International Federation of Water Sports (FINA) was the holding of a tournament of swimmers and synchronists precisely on Kazan-Arena. As a result, specially for the World Cup at the football stadium, for the first time in history, a swimming pool was installed. Even two are training and basic, who can accept about 45 thousand spectators.

This decision caused serious discontent from Kazan football fans. After all, Kazan-Arena immediately after the opening turned into an advanced football stadium, the two-time champion of Russia "Rubin", which played a number of matches here, had excellent attendance and a very decent television picture ... But what sacrifices you will not make for the international prestige of Russian sports! As a result, more than a two -week water tournament means serious losses for Rubin: football will return to the stadium only in the spring of next year. Apparently, the construction of a new one or the reconstruction of an old international basin was either more expensive or much more complicated than the operation “Pool at the stadium”, and Rubin had to come to terms with the situation.

Previously, the World Sports Championship was never held either in the USSR or in Russia. Meanwhile, water species, along with athletics, are extremely "medalemic" types of programs of the program. Not so long ago, Russia held the World Athletics Championship in Moscow, and now, having held the current “water” tournament in Kazan, having an Olympics in Sochi and hoping for the World Cup, one of the main sports countries of the world will be considered. We will now leave aside the issues of conformity of large image tournaments of the common - and very sad - a picture of the development of physical education. We only note that large sports tournaments in Russia are always held to improve the image of the country - and therefore win, as they say, with a defeator score. Not to mention the general state of the Russian economy, which is now cracking at all seams - against its background, large and expensive tournaments look natural "feast during the plague" ...

It is curious that in the world there is now a reverse tendency - large cities, like Munich, often abandon tournaments like Olympiads, realizing that the costs will be large, and whether they will pay off - God is all. So the victory of Kazan in the struggle for the right to accept the "water" World Cup was ahead of Hong Kong, Mexican Guadalahara, Chinese Guangzhou and Canadian Montreal - and the last two cities withdrew their applications before the final vote. The decision on the victory of Kazan in the "water" dispute was made in June 2011, and then the Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Vitaly Mutko promised to create "all the necessary infrastructure" in the capital of Tatarstan. In other words, in the republican capital, located at the confluence of the two rivers - the Volga and Kazanka, the infrastructure for the World Cup did not exist! As in Sochi, in Kazan I had to build everything from scratch. Here are just the main infrastructure facilities - swimming pools! - In Kazan, after the World Cup will not remain: as already mentioned, they will disappear, turning into a football arena. The inhabitants of Kazan, apparently, in vain hoped that they could use the pools remaining at their disposal: apparently, the Volga and Kazan would remain out of competition.

Especially for the World Cup, a swimming pool was installed for the first time in history for the first time in history

Indeed, one of the new objects of the World Cup is located right in the city center, on the shore of Kazanka, directly opposite the Kul-Sharif and the Kremlin mosque . Here will be held by high-diving tournament (jumping into water from extreme heights). Also in Kazanka will be held competitions in open water. But, I think, the design-lifting for high diving is unlikely to remain in Kazan after the World Cup, as well as a route for swimming in open water. But there were already a lot of victorious relations about early readiness for the World Cup ...

Well, now about the actual sports part of the tournament. At the World Cup, 75 sets of medals in six types of programs will be played: swimming, synchronous swimming, swimming in open water, water jumping, water polo and high-diving. The Russian national team at the pre -Olympic championship is actively advertised as the favorite of the tournament. Recall that at the 2013 World Championship in Barcelona, the Russian team took third place in the medal standings, having won a total of 19 awards (9 gold, 6 silver, 4 bronze medals). The first place went to the US team, the Chinese became the second.

Michael Felps will not come to Kazan

It must also be understood that the general medal offset consists of fundamentally different types. If the Russians are recognized leaders in synchronous swimming, in other species they will only claim medals. In addition, swimming is the nail of the program where the overwhelming number of medals is played. Note that the main share of Russian gold medals in Barcelona was won by synchronists who won all seven programs of the tournament. The swimmers received two "gold". And, for example, jumpers did not win gold medals in the water, although here the number of sets of awards is also very large - more only in swimming. In the water polo and high diving, the chances of Russians are small.

Russia has young participants in the competitions who showed themselves at the Euro -Olympiad in Baku - Arina Openysheva, Maria Astashkina, Maria Kameneva. There are experienced craftsmen - Andrei Grechin, Danila Isotov, Nikita Lobtsov, Vladimir Morozov. The strongest swimmer of the country, Julia Efimova, disqualified in May last year for 16 months for the use of doping, received permission to speak in Kazan, which, of course, causes bewilderment, especially against the background of the story with Michael Felps . The great American swimmer was detained by the police on the road at a state of intoxication and disqualified by the American Federation, so in Kazan the 18-time Olympic champion will not come. Perhaps he will take part in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. In general, the competitions in Kazan will be interesting primarily by pre -Olympic layouts, although the results of the World Cup itself can become very interesting.