Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitri Chernychenko As part of his working visit to Tatarstan, he attended the final of the second stage of the Friendship Games, an international water sports competition, the Deputy Prime Minister’s press service reports.
Together with the Head of the Republic, Rustam Minnikhanov, the Deputy Prime Minister spoke with the athletes and awarded six winners of the women’s 400-meter freestyle and the men’s 200-meter backstroke. A total of 84 sets of rewards have been played.
– Today we completed the second stage of the new international tournament “Friendship Games”. The competitions were lively and intense. And the athletes have shown great results. Within the framework of two stages, several world and European records were broken. A third stage awaits us. More than 1,000 athletes from 30 countries will participate in the preliminary. We hope the athletes will also set new records,” Chernyshenko said.
The third stage will take place from December 8 to 12.
– It’s nice to see that the “Friendship Games” are gaining popularity. The capital of Tatarstan – Kazan has repeatedly become the place of international competitions. We have modern sports infrastructure and the Aquatic Palace is the largest indoor water sports facility in the country. We are waiting for new sports results! Minnikhanov added.
1,146 athletes from 22 countries took part in the second stage of the tournament, including the stars of Russian swimming – two-time Olympic champion, silver and bronze medalist of the Olympic Games Evgeny Rylov, silver and bronze medalist of the Tokyo Kliment Kolesnikov, World and European champion Maria Kameneva, Olympic Games silver medalists in the relay Ivan Girev, Mikhail Vekovishchev, Mikhail Dovgalyuk, Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games bronze medalist Anton Chupkov, European champions, winners of the world championships Evgenia Chikunova and Arina Surkova.
The Friendship Games are international swimming, synchronized swimming and diving competitions that take place in Kazan from July to December 2022. The 1st stage of the “Friendship Games” “Peace” was held from 19 July to August 3. It brought together 984 athletes and 237 team representatives from 16 countries, and 376 sets of medals were played. The second stage of the competition took place from November 10 to 25.
Source : MatchTV
