The Roscongress Foundation’s sporting platform RC-Sport organized ‘Sport Against COVID-19: Heart of Eurasia’s Perspective’ in Ufa. This conference presented a model for successful collaboration between sport and education.
«We have a number of programmes that aim developing sport in rural areas and in schools. This year, the first 100 coaches will get grants from the government of the Republic. Now, while the Greco-Roman Wrestling Cup of Russia is on, we have opened 46 wrestling gyms in public schools located in various parts of the Republic. By 2024, we will take this number up to 200. One day, this programme will give us great athletes. However, most importantly this programme creates opportunities for involving children in sport and raising a healthy generation,» shared Radiy Khabirov, Head of the Republic of Bashkortostan.
Bashkortostan is the pilot region for the nationwide programme entitled ‘Wrestling for Schools’. This programme covers over 300 schools in 40 Russian regions. «Any boy wants to learn wrestling. We can see how sport meets the need of children in Bashkortostan. I would like to emphasize that the system for developing wrestling starts with a solid foundation here. It is important for other regions to use this comprehensive approach and this successful experience of collaboration between sport and education,» noted Mikhail Mamiashvili, President of the Wrestling Federation of Russia and Olympic Champion in Greco-Roman wrestling.
Radiy Khabirov, Head of Bashkortostan, presented the programme for wrestling developing last year at the SPIEF session called ‘Sports for Everyone: Global Trends and Entrepreneurial Approach’. During the same discussion he spoke about the programme for building swimming pools and teaching all the region’s children to swim. Before the end of the year, Bashkortostan plans to complete design works for the standard athletic complex with a swimming pool. By 2024, 16 such facilities will be put into operation.
«Swimming involves all muscle groups and is probably the best choice for a healthy lifestyle. However, it is all about the availability of swimming pools. Building standard complexes Radiy Khabirov was talking about can become a fundamental solution. Teaching all children to swim is a global task. Resolving it will give a boost to all kinds of water sports. At the same time, Bashkortostan can already form men’s and women’s water polo teams, while this region can potential host World Cup series,» said Alexey Vlasenko, President of the Water Polo Federation, Water Jumping Federation and the Synchronised Swimming Federation of Russia.
«At the conference, Bashkortostan presented a model for successful collaboration between sport and education that should be spread across the country. The new reality of COVID calls for reviewing the mission of sport. Its role should become principal in finding post-pandemic solutions for improving people’s health and ensuring their harmonic development. With this said, Bashkortostan’s experience becomes ever so important,» emphasized Georgy Bryusov, Deputy CEO of the Roscongress Foundation and Head of the UWW ‘Sports for Everyone’ commission.
During the conference, the Roscongress Foundation, RC-Sport and the Republic of Bashkortostan signed a cooperation agreement for joining efforts in promoting sporting projects. One of those projects is the World Junior Wrestling Championship that Ufa will host in summer 2021. The Russian Cup for the head of Bashkortostan prizes was the trial run for the World Championship. It took place in the new Sports Training Centre named after Rima Batalova, who won 13 gold medals at Paralympic Games.
The most anticipated part of the tournament was the fight between world champions in the up to 60 kg category. As a result, Stepan Maryanyan won over Sergey Yemelin. Two-time Olympic champion Roman Vlasov remained the leader in the up to 75 kg category. Sergey Semyonov, 2016 Olympic medallist, won in the super heavyweight category. This was the first tournament the athletes got to participate in since the start of the pandemic.
