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Tatar city emerges as new Russian sports giant
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Tatar city emerges as new Russian sports giant
AFP - Thursday, October 14
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Tatar city emerges as new Russian sports giant
MOSCOW (AFP) - – Deep in the region of Russia's mighty Volga river, a largely Muslim city has emerged as a new sporting giant that is already standing above its rivals in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
The success of Kazan, the capital of the Tatarstan region and once the main city of a medieval khanate that ruled much of the Volga, has not only become the pride of Muslim Tatars but Russians across the country.
Kazan's flagship act is Russian football champions Rubin Kazan who astonished observers by beating Barcelona 2-1 at the Camp Nou last year and then holding the Spanish giants to a draw at home this year.
Kazan ice hockey club Ak Bars added to the sporting fame of Tatarstan, clinching four domestic crowns including the last two seasons and also winning the European Champions Cup in 2007.
Volleyball and basketball teams in Tatarstan have gained their places among their league's leaders, providing the traditional favourites with tough opposition to earn a reputation as uncompromising fighters.
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Tatarstan's sports teams went step by step, improving their position in the country's leagues and clinching their places among the top divisions' leaders.
Mintimer Shaimiev, the strongman leader who presided over Tatarstan from 1991 until stepping down this year, is a passionate sports lover.
He placed the sports and healthy way of life among the main priorities of the republic's social policy from the very first days of his presidency.
"We should make a healthy way of life standard for all of the Tatarstan population," Shaimiev said.
"We all should do our best to raise the level of life in the republic keeping in mind that healthy way of life is one of the most accessible measures of lifting the level of life."
Under Shaimiev, the local government established an up-to-date and easily accessible sporting infrastructure not only in the republic's capital Kazan but also throughout Tatarstan.
Energy-rich Tatarstan made noises about independence from Russia in the early years after the fall of the Soviet Union but separatism later died down and the region now enjoys the status of a republic within Russia.
In 2006 Kazan launched a bid for the right to host the World Student Games and just two years later the international student sports ruling body (FISU) granted the Tatarstan capital the right to host the 2013 Universiade.
That sign of confidence boosted significantly sports development in Tatarstan, not only inspiring the republic's athletes but also bringing in solid investments into the sports sphere.
Regional oil company Tatneft, the TAIF Group of oil-processing companies, and many others joined the band of investors and sponsors of Tatarstan sport teams adding their money to the budget funding.
The new income of funding allowed the republic's clubs to bolster their line-ups with a set of experienced players that improved their performance a great deal.
In 2008, Rubin won their first ever national football title along with ice hockey outfit Ak Bars Kazan, who became the first winners of the newly-established multi-national Continental Hockey League (KHL).
The next year both clubs managed to repeat their successes.
For the 2013 Student Games, as many as 36 new sporting venues will be constructed in Tatarstan including a new football 45,000-seater stadium, chess palace and rowing lake.
After Shaimiev's resignation earlier this year after almost 19 years of presidency, his successor as Tatarstan president Rustam Minnihanov may go even further in developing sports in the republic.
Minnihanov is not only a passionate fan but also a former top-class sportsman, who won two Russian titles in auto racing.
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