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Russian athletes will compete for medals at the BRICS Games, TASS reports. The 5th tournament opens on Wednesday, October, 18. This year it is hosted by South Africa.
Almost 500 athletes aged 19 to 21 have gathered in Durban. They represent all the states included in the association - Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa.
Competitions in six sports are planned: tennis and table tennis, swimming, badminton, beach volleyball, sports for people with musculoskeletal disorders.
The national team includes 34 athletes. Among them are Evgenia Chikunova, who holds the world record in swimming, the winner of the Russian swimming championship Alexey Tkachev and other famous athletes.
According to Deputy Head of the Government of the Russian Federation Dmitry Chernyshenko, the tournament is an important event not only for the world of sports. It deepens contacts between countries and provides an opportunity to learn about the cultures of different peoples.
Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin called the BRICS countries a reliable ally in the development of sports cooperation. He assured that Russia is ready to share its experience in organizing large-scale sports tournaments.
The next BRICS Games will be held from June, 20 to June, 23, 2024 in Kazan. Participants from the BRICS countries will compete in 25 sports. The competition will have an international status, and national teams from different countries can join.
Last year, the competition was held online, with athletes from five BRICS countries competing in breakdancing, chess and wushu. The initiative to create the BRICS Games in Russia came in the spring of 2022 after Russian athletes were excluded from many international competitions for political reasons.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko noted that Russia would avoid isolation in the field of world sports thanks to competitions organized with the participation of athletes from the SCO, BRICS, and CIS countries.
Russkiy Mir
