The second visit of the European Olympic Committees (EOC) Coordination Commission (CoCom) for the European Games Minsk 2019 concluded today at the headquarters of the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus.
The two-day session finished with a press conference with EOC President Janez Kocijancic, CoCom Chair Spyros Capralos and Minsk European Games Organizing Committee (MEGOC) CEO George Katulin.
“We have seen numerous presentations on various functional areas of preparation for the European Games. It is important that the information received during each presentation allowed to us to have a constructive discussion,” said President Kocijancic. “We see the successes achieved by the organizing committee and are very impressed with the marketing programs. Another positive is the large number of candidates for volunteers who have already registered and been interviewed. This is a remarkable indicator of the interest the public has for the upcoming Games. Now we are entering the stage of transforming our plans into practice. The Government of Belarus, the Republican Organizing Committee, and MEGOC have a lot to do. Now all these institutions are working together to ensure the best preparations for the Games.”
CoCom chair Capralos said: “During our visit we managed to visit a number of facilities, including recently built ones and those still being refurbished. We were again impressed by Dinamo stadium. The shooting center, which will be ready in the near future, left a positive impression. The condition of the venues allows us to say that the competitions will be held at a very high level. Professional teams already work at these facilities. Now we need to work on the temporary infrastructure.”
MEGOC CEO Katulin said: “All the participants of the Coordination Commission, who received a number of important presentations, contributed to a fruitful discussion. In mid-October, a group of EOC experts and several members of the Coordination Commission will meet again in Minsk to monitor preparations for the 2nd European Games. Our next steps are to hire a timing company that will record results. This should happen very soon. After that we need to sign a contract with the company that organizes catering for athletes. In addition, our focus will also be on creating additional infrastructure next to sports facilities.”
In total, 4,082 athletes from all 50 European National Olympic Committees will compete in 15 sports in Minsk: 3x3 basketball, archery, athletics, badminton, beach soccer, beach volleyball, boxing, canoe sprint, cycling, judo, karate, sambo, shooting, table tennis, and wrestling. Winners of three sports – archery, shooting and table tennis – will qualify automatically for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, with another six sports offering qualification points for Tokyo 2020. The European Games will also act as the official European championships for four sports – boxing, canoe sprint, judo, and badminton.
There will be 91 men’s events, 89 women’s events, and 20 mixed events in total, with 115 universality spots available.