News

Preparation of the 16th FINA World Championships sports venues and cultural programme is coming to its logical end. Deputy Director General of the Executive Directorate for Sports Projects, Mikhail Zotov, talked about this during a press conference at the Tatar-inform Information Agency.

Starting June 15, electronic tickets for the Ceremonies and the show bought at the website www.ticketkazan2015.com are now equal to paper tickets purchased at official ticket outlets. Those spectators who paid for tickets for the Pilgrim Show earlier at the website, should exchange their order forms for paper tickets.

From a bird’s-eye view, visitors arriving in the capital of Tatarstan by plane will be able to see an unusual picture on the landing field. Images of the FINA World Championships mascots, snow leopards Itil and Alsu, have been cut out in grass to welcome all those coming to Kazan for this summer’s sporting event.

A concert and filming of a TV show, Aqua Comedy Club, will take place in Kazan on August 7 and 8 as part of the cultural programme for the 16th FINA World Championships in Kazan.

The Executive Directorate for Sports Projects has launched a YouTube channel for the 16th FINA World Championships. With several months to go to the start of the tournament, the channel will provide Internet users with the latest news about the preparation of venues, information on how and where to purchase tickets, as well as interesting facts about athletes, aquatic sports and history of the FINA World Championships.

The FINA 2015 Lessons begin at schools of Kazan. Awareness-raising activities aimed at promoting the 16th FINA World Championships kicked off last Friday, December 12, and were held in two schools at once - No 146 and No 175. The task of the project is to encourage younger generation to take up swimming and other sports, to promote healthy lifestyles, to develop schoolchildren's creative and cognitive abilities, and to urge them to become volunteers.

300 days to go to the 16th FINA World Championships were marked with the opening of the new countdown clock ticking down the time left to the start of next summer's international aquatics event. The clock was opened in Bauman Street, near the iconic Arabian style street clock. The ceremony was attended by Mayor of Kazan, Ilsur Metshin, and Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports of the Republic of Tatarstan, Vladimir Leonov.

Preparations for the manned space flight continue at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. In the operations and checkout building of Site 112, teams of the Samara Rocket and Space Centre Progress and Yuzhny Space Centre, the division of FSUE TsENKI, are preparing the Soyuz FG launch vehicle for a trip intended to put the Soyuz TMA-14M manned spacecraft into orbit. The symbol of the 16th FINA World Championships 2015 - a barrel filled with Kazanka River water - will travel into space aboard this ship. Units of the launch vehicle are currently being tested.