“The Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk last year was the best event for our student athletes in recent times,” said Aigi Abele, President of the Latvian University Sports Federation, LASS (Latvijas Augstskolu Sporta Savieniba). “The excellent organisation made this event special, it set a good example and inspired us to aim for new achievements.”
Aigi Abele was in conversation with future FISU Volunteer Leaders Academy participant Jekaterina Kochetkova. The LASS has been a FISU member since 1993, although it continues to remain a small unit with only three employees. The council consist of nine people.
“Our main goal is the development and promotion of student sports, as well as ensuring successful participation in the World University Games and Championships and European Championships” said Abele. “We also have to ensure we hold Latvian Universiades and student championships, involving participation from all higher education institutions of Latvia. This is an important task.”
At the Krasnoyarsk 2019 Winter Universiade, Latvia was represented by 27 students from 13 Latvian universities. The athletes took part in five disciplines – alpine skiing, short track speed skating, snowboard, ice-hockey and also for the first time, figure skating.
“Angelina Kuchvalskaya from RISEBA (Riga International School of Economics and Business Administration) performed very well in figure skating and took the 8th place,” added Abele. “We want to coordinate more and more participation. We have planned competitions for Latvian students in more than 20 different sports. The federation is currently preparing athletes for participation in the 30th Winter Universiade which will be held in Lucerne in January 2021.”
LASS is also preparing participation of a strong Latvian team at the Chengdu 2021 Summer World University Games, as well as the European Student Championship in 2021. Regional events are not less important. The federation is also organising work for the XXXVIII SELL student games, which will be held in Latvia, Riga, in 2021.
According to Aiga Abele, “work has begun on creating a platform for the registration system, developing a logo, posters and medals for this event. All of them should be presented to all Baltic countries at the SELL forum in Finland in 2020”.
In addition, the Latvian University Sports Federation is also planning for the preparation of the ‘International Day of University Sports’ or IDUS, which is held in September every year. This year, the Latvian programme will include the 31st beach volleyball competition among Latvian universities, as well as the XXXI Latvian Universiade.
Aiga Abele further said that “for the development of the Latvian University Sports Federation, we are also planning to organise seminars with invited lecturers to improve the qualifications of trainers, and we are also planning the participation in FISU and EUSA 2020 Conferences and Forums. We will also have a participant at the 2020 FISU Volunteer Leaders Academy.”
By: Jekaterina Kochetkova