2013 SU Update: FISU Flag Replica handed over to Ekaterinburg

EKATERINBURG – On October 16th, on U-Day marking the founding of the Ural Federal University (UrFU) and the FISU Flag Relay’s stay in Eketerinburg, the city’s circus hosted a grand concert dedicated to these two occasions.

Participants of the grand-scale student talent festival offered the audience creative vocal, dance, comedy and drama performances. Each institute of the Ural Federal University demonstrated its creative presentation delivered by first year students.

At the end of the concert the FISU Flag replica handover ceremony took place on the circus stage. Among the special guests attending the event were Chief of Staff of the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate Larisa Sulima, President of the Tatarstan Student League Timur Suleimanov, Minister of Physical Culture, Sports and Youth Policy of the Sverdlovsk Region Leonid Rapoport, First Pro-Rector of the Ural Federal University Dmitry Bugrov, a representative of Sberbank of Russia, and Kazan 2013 Ambassadors Sergey Chepikov and Dmitry Sharafutdinov.

Earlier, at the solemn ceremony of signing a cooperation agreement with the Ural Federal University, the newly appointed ambassadors for the 2013 Summer Universiade had been handed credentials by the Chief of Staff of the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate. Larisa Sulima expressed hope that such highly-awarded athletes that were already recognized as idols by youth, would be perfect propagandists of the ideology of sports, health and youth, the main attributes of the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan. Two famous athletes joined the long list of other Kazan 2013 Ambassadors among which there are such Olympic champions as Maria Kiseleva, Elena Zamolodchikova, Vladimir Krylov, Elena Posevina, as well as champions of the 26th Summer Universiade in Shenzhen,China.

As a gift to the Ural Federal University that celebrates its birthday today, Sberbank of Russia, the General Partner for the FISU Flag Relay, presented a huge cake that served as a well-deserved dessert for the freshmen of UrFU.

«On the day of your university’s birthday the historical relic, theFISUFlag, arrived in the capital of Urals. Today is a great day for us since we’ve partnered with the Ural Federal University and have seen the best creative bands that we will gladly invite to take part in the program of the Cultural Universiade,» said Larisa Sulima in her welcome speech to UrFU’s freshmen.

For his part, First Pro-Rector of the Ural Federal University Dmitry Bugrov stated that the 2011 Summer Universiade had been held in Shenzhen, located in Asia and the next Summer Universiade would be held in Kazan, situated in Europe. «And right in the middle of these two cities there is Ekaterinburg, the heart ofEurasia», he said.

It is reported that the FISU Flag replica will be kept in theUralFederalUniversityto return to Kazan in 2013.

U-Day ended with the gigs delivered by beatboxer Mitya Burmistrov and rock band Murakami.

(Source: Media Department of Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate)