Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The International University Sports Federation (FISU) held its Executive Committee Meeting on March 3-6 in Brussels, Belgium, electing new heads of the 15 committees and 275 new members.

Serving from 2007 at the FISU, a member of the Monitoring Committee D.Jargalsaikhan has been elected as a deputy head of this Committee which consists of 27 members.

An external relations officer at the University Sports Federation of Mongolia (USFM) Z.Uranbileg; and a board member of the USFM Kh.Batsaikhan have been selected as a member of the FISU Students’ Committee. Moreover, director of the Eagle TV channel D.Badamdash has become a member of the Committee on media.

The USFM president Mr Bayasgalan Danzandorj has been serving as the FISU Treasurer for the third time.

During the FISU Executive Committee meeting, Asset Abdualiyev, Head of the Organizing Committee for the Winter Universiade, delivered an interim report on the accomplished work preparing for the upcoming events in Almaty.

As of March 5, 2016, 54 countries have already registered to take part in the Winter Universiade 2017, which is a new record of participating countries in the Winter Universiade’s history. Registration will last until March 29, 2016. In previous winter events there were fewer participants: Turin 2007 (Italy) – 48 countries, Harbin 2009 (China) – 44 countries, Erzurum 2011 (Turkey) – 52 countries, Trentino 2013 (Italy) – 50 countries, Granada 2015 (Spain) – 41 countries.

“The largest number of countries taking part in the International Students Games was registered in 2011 in Erzurum – 52 countries. We expect 2 000 athletes from 55 countries at the Winter Universiade in Almaty. Currently, 54 countries have been registered online”, noted Asset Abdualiyev during the FISU Executive Committee meeting in Brussels.

Winter Universiade 2017 in Almaty is the biggest sports event in the history of Kazakhstan. Almaty will become the first city to host the Winter Universiade in the CIS. During the current year, there are 7 test events going to be held to test the venues of the Winter Universiade 2017. Two of them had already been held, which are National Universiade and FIS Ski Jumping World Cup.

The Head of the Organizing Committee for the Winter Universiade noted that the venues are complete by 60%. For the first time, the athletes’ village is being built specifically for the Winter Universiade.

“After the experience of holding the 7th Asian Games the visa requirements for guests will be simplified. There will be 500 transport vehicles designated for the guests to get around the city, for which main and alternative routes have been developed”, noted Asset Abdualiyev.

The Heads of the Organizing Committees’ of the Summer Universiade in Taibei 2017, Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk 2019 and other Universiades have also spoken.

Concluding the meeting FISU President Oleg Matytsyn expressed his confidence in successful holding of the events and highly praised the work of the Organizing Committee.

“Today we heard that 54 countries expressed their intention to take part in the Universiade. Evidently, it will be a new record for the International University Sports Federation in the history of Winter Universiades, although we still have a lot of work to do. Yet, I am sure that the Universiade 2017 in Almaty will be held successfully. We can see the work of the Organizing Committee and how responsible they are”, noted the International University Sports Federation President Oleg Matytsyn.

In his turn, the FISU Secretary General /CEO Eric Saintrond highlighted the importance of holding the Universiade.“We are very satisfied with the report we have received today. We can see a huge improvement in the preparation for the games. We want to have the best games ever held in Almaty. We have a great team, very good infrastructure and we rely on the Organizing Committee. We have only ten months left and I am sure that with all your energy, quality and competence we can have fantastic games”, concluded Eric Saintrond.