Kazan on the way to title of global capital of aquatics
The fourth stage of FINA Diving World Series will take place in Kazan from 22 to 24 April. It is not the first competition of this kind hosted by Tatarstan. A press conference dedicated to this event was held on 14 April. The sports staff of Realnoe Vremya decided to find out what is waiting for us in such an important contest.
Sports capital of Russia
Kazan hosted FINA Diving World Series just before the FINA World Championships last year. In the Aquatics 2015, our national team took the third position (9 gold medals and 17 in total), the second place was occupied by China (15 gold medals and 35 in total) and the first place was taken USA (13 gold medals and 33 in total).
Kazan will host FINA World Junior Synchronized Swimming Championships 2016 at the beginning of June. A record number of entry forms have already been received from more than 25 countries. FINA World Junior Diving Championships will be held in Kazan in October. Moreover, the capital of Tatarstan will organize the Russian Short Course Swimming Championship on 5-9 November.
It should be reminded that Kazan hosts competitions of different kinds of sport. It is clear that the world and European competitions are remarkable, but there are other levels too.
Will Kazan be lucky for Russian divers?
As for the guest of honour, 72 athletes from 12 countries will participate in FINA Diving World Series. Winners of the 16th FINA World Championships will be among them as well: Xiaohu Tai, Chao He and Yuan Cao from China who became champions in 2015 and 2012, and Chinese Tingmao Shi won gold medals in the World Championships three consecutive times, the last competition took place in Kazan.
Russia will be represented by Ilya Zakharov and Evgeny Kuznetsov. Zakharov is a six-time European champion, gold and silver medallist in London 2012, two-time silver medallist in FINA World Championships in Kazan and Shanghai. Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ilya Zakharov won the gold medal in the Universiade in Kazan. Kuznetsov has a silver medal in the FINA World Championships 2013 and 2015 and silver and bronze medals in the 2011 Championships under his belt.
It will be one of the last competitions to score points before the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Azat Kadyrov, director general of Executive Directorate for Sports Projects ANO, hopes that fans will distract from 'May' affairs and visit the competitions.
'It will be difficult to coax the citizens of Kazan to postpone their plans in dachas and gardens to come to the competitions. Nevertheless, we will do it using all possibilities. There will be very interesting competitions and attractive starts. Olympic programme, qualifying event, athletes are trying to score the last points and obtain their licences. Consequently, they all will come to Kazan with a great concentration to demonstrate the best sports result,' he told.
In addition, the competitions will be held in the Aquatics Palace closely situated to Tatneft Arena that will host the European Judo Championships. The organizers of the competitions hoped that spectators would not limit themselves to only one sport but visit all competitions. What is more, the price for tickets is very attractive – from 100 to 300 rubles.
Russia – champion?
We should not wait for any stunning results like in the 2013 Universiade. As Azat Kadyrov told, strong athletes will come, and they will be motivated. We should not wait for any relaxation.
Why don't the citizens of Kazan come and support our athletes? Celebrated athletes, candidates for victory in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro will compete in the capital of Tatarstan. They are not only Russians but also Chinese, Americans and Italians. Who knows, when will such famous divers come to Kazan next time?
Note for fan
Diving was first introduced in the Olympics in 1904 and always forms a part of the programme of the Olympic Games. In 2000, synchronized diving was adopted in Sydney. There are eight medal sets in diving: four in the women's and men's 3m and 10m springboards in individual and synchronized matches. The number of competitions in the world and European contests reach ten, 1m dive is added.
The competitions usually consist of three stages. Qualification takes place first, then 18 semifinalists go further. Only 12 athletes who had the best results reach the final. Earlier points in the semifinal and final were added. But this rule was revoked by FINA in 2007, so now the finals start 'from scratch'.
Athletes perform a series of dives at each stage to obtain their best result. Women execute five dives, men – 6. Athletes submit their lists in advance because judges need to rate the difficulty of each dive and, consequently, evaluate a dive later.
As for the points, athletes can obtain from 0 to 10 points from seven judges for each attempt. And the two highest awards and the two lowest are disregarded. There are nine judges for synchronized diving. Four of them judge the execution and the five evaluate the synchronization.