Events

GRODNO, 5 August (BelTA) - Grodno Oblast and the Chinese province of Jiangxi have signed an agreement on cooperation in sport, BelTA has learned.

The agreement is aimed at developing cooperation and exchanging experience between the two regions, organizing visits of top athletes for training at the sports facilities of the Belarusian or Chinese regions. The climate conditions, which are different in the two regions, have an influence on the training of athletes, in particular, track and field athletes: summers in Jiangxi Province are too hot for training, while in Belarus winters are too cold. The sport infrastructure in Grodno Oblast and the Chinese province is ideal for the training of top-class athletes.

The two regions are planning to develop cooperation primarily in track and field and swimming, said Oleg Andreichik, the head of the sport and tourism department of the Grodno Oblast Executive Committee. In the future it will be expanded to cover canoeing, team sports and other sports. The regions are planning to exchange both the leading athletes and coaching staff. "China has made serious advances in sports in recent years. Of course, we are interested in their experience in training, recovery, rehabilitation, sports medicine, and psychological work. All these are also promising areas for cooperation," he said.

A schedule of training and program of other mutually interesting activities will soon be developed in furtherance of the agreement. Already this winter season the athletes from Grodno will go to China where they will undertake three-month training at the swimming and athletics center in the city of Nanchang. In turn, hammer throwers from China are already training in Grodno.

By the way, the idea to establish regional cooperation was put forward by Belarus’ Distinguished Coach, master of sports in six sports, hammer thrower Igor Tsitsorin. He has been working in Jiangxi for three years already and achieved great results with his juniors team.

The agreement on cooperation and joint activities in sport was signed during the official visit of the Chinese delegation to Grodno Oblast. During the three-day visit to the region, the guests will get acquainted with sports facilities, recreational and tourism infrastructure.

Jiangxi is one of the largest provinces in China. The population is more than 44 million people. It has a well-developed sport and recreation infrastructure and has 8 big sports facilities for training.