1 month before BRICS Games: closing ceremony on TV and up to 360k rub for victory

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Competitions are held in 29 sports at 18 sports facilities in the city. The event itself takes place in the capital of the republic in mid-June — from the 10th to the 26th.

The opening ceremony of the BRICS Games is scheduled for June 12 at the Kazan Expo International Exhibition Centre, and the closing ceremony is held on June 23. It is noted that there will be no closing ceremony as such — all festive events will be combined with Sabantuy national holiday, which is held on the same day.

However, the guests do not have the opportunity to attend to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games — due to the limited facilities, they can accommodate only athletes and participants of the international tournament. Despite this, all events, starting from the opening of the games and up to their completion, are going to be broadcast on TV and online.

It is preliminary known that 13 sports have been identified for TV screening: athletics, Greco-Roman wrestling, freestyle wrestling, swimming, diving, synchronised swimming, gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, beach volleyball, fencing, judo, sambo, and boxing.

“On the first day of sale — April 23 — about 4 thousand tickets were sold. A month before the start of the Games, we sold about 20% of the tickets. In total, 100 thousand tickets have been sold, all of them are already on open sale," Leonov shared.

The top cities that bought tickets are Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Nizhny Novgorod. Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok and Khabarovsk are also on the list of leaders.

“Such indicators a month before the event are very good. Considering that this is a new event, it is quite good," said the minister of sports of Tatarstan. In addition to guests from major Russian cities, we expect foreign fans in Kazan. According to statistics, tickets were purchased from other countries, mostly from CIS countries," he summed up.

Best athletes from the republic are competing for Russia

Leonov noted that the best athletes from the republic represent Russia at the upcoming games.

“We expect the best athletes of the Russian national team. Tatarstan citizens are definitely be represented in the national team," the minister said.

The range of disciplines in which our athletes are performing turned out to be quite extensive — to a greater extent, combat sports are brought here:

• boxing — Sergey Sergeev and Gelusa Galieva;

• breaking — Nazip Minikaev and Ruslan Fayzrakhmanov;

• belt wrestling — Dina Gizatullina, Gabdyzhalil Suleymanov, Danila Zubrilov, Timur Latipov, and Ilnar Zakirov;

• karate — Ilya Savin;

• sambo — Kirill Bazhin;

• wrestling — Svetlana Lipatova and Ekaterina Koshkina.

Tatarstan athletes are also showing their skills in swimming, chess, diving and badminton. In total, Tatarstan citizens are represented at the Games in 21 sports as part of the Russian national team.

To date, the general application for the tournament includes more than 5,000 participants from more than 60 countries. Athletes are going to compete for more than 380 sets of medals. Athletes will get from 51 to 360 thousand rubles for winning, Leonov said.

“The national team needs to perform somewhere, this is also a start for them. These competitions are equated, in my opinion, to the European Championship. The winners will be rewarded. We are doing this so that, in addition to their desire, they have an incentive to win medals," the minister of sports noted.

Events are new, challenges are old

Leonov also advised all residents and guests of the capital to plan routes to the competition venues in advance.

“This is one of the main challenges that we will face, especially when a large number of guests gather in Kazan. Moreover, this is June — the height of the tourist season," Vladimir Leonov noted.

According to the results of the last May holidays, Kazan entered the top ten most booked destinations in Russia, and the average occupancy of hotels, hostels and hotels in the city was 83%.

In addition to the issue of the transport and infrastructure component of the city, special attention was paid to safety at competitive facilities.

“Ensuring safety is our priority. We devote a huge amount of effort, attention and time to it and hope that the event will take place without incident. We have a well-thought-out plan and experience, as well as a team of professionals who have been holding major events for years. Security will be ensured at all stages, starting from crossing the border of the Russian Federation," the minister of sports summed up.