Nineteen days before the start of the European Universities Games, which will take place in Zagreb and in Rijeka from 12 to 25 July, the organizers of the biggest multi-sporting event in Croatia presented the final number of participants.
“We are very pleased to announce that 4781 student athletes will be competing in the Games in Zagreb and Rijeka. When we add other members, their coaches and the officials, the number rises to 5786 people,” the president of the Sport Committee of EUG 2016 Danira Bilić said.
The competitors will arrive from 403 universities in 41 countries. “Out of European countries, the biggest number of competitors, 401 of them, will arrive from Great Britain, 400 from Germany, 330 from France, 320 from Portugal, 280 from Turkey, 230 from Spain, 200 from Slovenia. We are especially happy that competitors from countries such as Iceland, and even Israel (with 48 participants) will also be participating in the Games, and students from Malta will also visit Croatia because of this event,” Bilić added.
The European Universities Games will be held on more than 40 sites in Zagreb and Rijeka. “We will award more than 2000 medals, around 130 trophies for the best, and 120 special prizes. This is just one part of the impressive numbers that show what kind of event this is, one that has been in the making for years. Thanks to the organization, which currently numbers several thousand people, and among them 2000 volunteers, we can now say that we have done everything to make sure the Games run according to plan,” said Zrinko Čuštonja, the president of the EUG 2016.
Ana Lenard, our karate fighter who won the bronze medal at the 51st European Championship in France and who will represent the University of Zagreb at the EUG, presented the Croatian participants at the EUG 2016.
Apart from the president of the Sport Committee of the EUG 2016, members of the organizational team of the EUG 2016 — Besim Aliti, Maida Arslanagić, Gordan Kožulj, Luka Leško, Katarina Maloča Mrčala and Krunoslava Kauzlarić, who had substituted their successful careers in professional sport with successful careers in the business world, were also present at the press conference.
The volunteers are a particularly positive story of the Games. Along with the Croatians, 200 volunteers from all over the world — even from the faraway Japan, Australia and Mexico — will make their contribution to the successful implementation of the Games. They were presented by Katarzyna Celaj, a volunteer from Poland and a member of the EUSA Student Commission, who has been working on the organization of the Games for ten months, and who shared with the media her positive experience of organizing the Games and the love she gained for her host-country, Croatia.
On this occasion the impressive opening ceremony of the European Universities Games has been announced, which will take place on 13 July, beginning at 9 PM at Mladost Stadium near the Sava River.
The guarantee that the opening will be spectacular lies in the fact that the ceremony will be directed by Krešimir Dolenčić, and entrance will be free for all interested, who only have to book their tickets on time.
