Weight lifting championship of Europe started in Tatarstan capital

The ceremony of opening 90th championship of Europe on weight lifting among men and 24th among women took place today at a Kazan Basket hall. The competitions of such a scale have not been held since in Russia since 1983 ( then, Moscow hosted the World and European championships).

In the ceremony of official opening took part RT Premier Ildar Khalikov, head of European federation on weight lifting Antonio Urso, executive director of Olympic committee of Russia , ex-chief RT Ministry of sports Marat Bariev, president of Russian federation on weight lifting, two-times prize holder of the Olympic Games Sergie Syrtsov and other officials.

The ceremony commenced with parade of participants. Over 200 leading weight lifters from 32 countries of Europe, including Turkey, Poland, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Germany, Spain, France and many others have come for the continent championship.

The current championship of Europe will compete for 45sets of medals in 8 weight categories and in 7 weight categories among women. The National Russian team is presented by 8 men and 7 women. The Russian national includes one representatives from Tatarstan, Andrei Demanov. The European contest will be a selection event for the World championship to be stages in France on October 9-19. The broadcasting of the European championship is arranged on Eurosports and NTV plus and other TV channels.

A part of the show became demonstration of concert item dedicated to the national fest Sabantui. So, the viewers could feel on the stand and before the TV screens a cultural color of the republic.