Enthusiastic and Highly Motivated Generation

04.06.2010

Andijon hosts the students sports games, Universiada-2010
Ten years have passed since comprehensive youth games started in Uzbekistan with the initiative of President Islam Karimov. First held in 2000 in Namangan, the Universiada was followed by Umid Nihollari and Barkamol Avlod sports events.

The games make up a unique system that almost completely covers the entire nation with facilities for regular physical training and sports for young people. It has in turn provided a practical and effective mechanism for upbringing a healthy and ethically mature generation, capable of accomplishing noble goals related to building a free, prosperous, democratic and modern society.

These sports competitions are critically important in that they facilitate mass engagement covering as they have virtually every school, college, university – millions of children and young people. “We can rightfully pride ourselves in the large-scale execution of policies that eventually brought about an encouraging environment for a comprehensive advancement of the individual, whereby physical training and sports are spread extensively, when children's sport enjoys dynamic development in towns and villages. The latter is fundamental in educating our children strong and brave, with an unyielding willpower that undeniably will serve to consolidate the values of healthy lifestyle in our society,” as President Karimov put in his greeting letter to participants of the Universiada-2010.

The traditional greeting by the leader of nation to young athletes is one of the most exciting elements of the Universiada, Umid Nihollari (Offsprings of Hope) and Barkamol Avlod (Comprehensive Advanced Generation). The President’s words, imbued with a sincere parental care, turn into a guide for action; they deliver a massive emotional charge not only before the start of the games, but also as they keep embedded in each soul for years.

The bright and colorful opening ceremony left unforgettable impressions on every heart as the Universiada flame lit up. As it has been the case before, the torch is ignited by the hot rays of the sun, focused onto one point by a giant parabolic mirror of the Institute Fizika-Solntse (Physics-Sun). This time around, the honor of igniting the torch was given to the boxer Rustam Saidov, a bronze medal winner of Sydney Olympics. Then the torch relay of the Universiada-2010 left for Andijon, accompanied by a Vatanparvar motorcade. And in the final steps of the relay to the Soghlom Avlod stadium, the torch was carried by the Asian swimming cup winner Shohruh Yunusov and Asian champion in Sambo Dildora Ubaydullaeva. The stadium burst into a flurry of delight, which merged the joy and pride as the bright flame of the games shot up in the night sky.

It is noteworthy that the stadium, which hosted the opening ceremony, as well as the entire complex of Andijon College of Olympic Reserves, was built seven years ago for Barkamol Avlod games held in this regional center. And for the Universiada-2010, all its sports facilities have been substantially updated. Andijon people built or reconstructed - especially for this event - 31 sports facilities and equipped them with modern tools and inventory: Navruz stadium, gyms of Andijon State University, Institute of Medicine, Institute of Languages, Institute of Agriculture, College of Information Technologies. And a new football academy with three fields is built in Shurbuloq quarter of the city.

Such scaled building of sports facilities is also a tradition of our competitions. Of course, they are built not only for particular competitions but almost constantly.

As the president recalled in his speech, in recent years the Children’s Sports Development Fund had drawn almost 160 billion soums channeled toward building and equipping 1,130 children’s sports facilities. Sport complexes, stadiums, swimming pools, halls erected in towns and villages of Uzbekistan since independence have created enormous opportunities for the youth to practice sports and grow up like Abbos Atoev, Abdulla Tangriev, Rustam Saidov, Rishod Sobirov, Akgul Amanmuradova, Svetlana Radzivil, Sevara Kadirova, Said Iskandarov, Vadim Menkov, Dilshod Mansurov, Elmurad Khalikov and other stars of the Uzbek sports glorifying their country on the world sports arenas.

Many of them have participated in the previous Universiada, or sports games, and for everyone who went together with the heroes of national sports in one sector, carpet or the court, these meetings are still memorable and dear. And the current participants of the Universiada will be proud of being lucky to meet with a Beijing Olympics bronze winner Rishod Sobirov, swimmers Ivan Demyanenko, Danil Bugakov, Pyotr Romashkin, Sergey Pankov, Olga Gnedovskaya, world kurash champions Sherali Juraev, Davlyat Choriyev, national football team player Sahob Djuraev and many other athletes well-known far beyond the republic.

A student of Tashkent State Economic University Rishod Sobirov whom, one might say, Universiada has opined in 2007 in Tashkent, despite the title and a tight schedule of international tournaments, also came in Andijon for competitions Kurash and judo, and brought the capital’s team two gold medals. While his teammate swimmer Ivan Demyanenko won a whole bunch of medals. These results reflect the state of physical education and sports activities in universities and, above all, the Department of Physical Education headed by the famous wrestler Aleksandr Istomin. However, the fact that each university prepared their athletes major student sports forum says that the care of the health of their students, support and encouragement of their sporting endeavors have become for heads of these educational establishments more than just a ceremonial issue.

In total, Andijon have gathered almost 1,800 students, including more than 800 girls representing universities of the capital, the Republic of Karakalpakstan and all regions of Uzbekistan. This is slightly less than it was three years ago in Tashkent. But not because of the decline in popularity – this year in gaming sports there were zonal qualifying stages and the final awards were disputed among the five strongest teams. In 12 sports – basketball, volleyball, handball, tennis, table tennis, soccer, chess, athletics, swimming, judo, kurash and belbogli kurash (belt wrestling) – students fought for 103 sets of medals. And despite the hot, uncompromising opposition on the arenas of the Universiada, students got to know each other, communicated in spare time, found new friends. This is also a great achievement of our complex competitions that have become true festivals of youth through numerous rallying points ranging from general morning exercises to night concerts, dances, meetings with artists and other cultural and educational activities.

Indeed, athletes from the capital and regions competed harshly: everyone wanted to bring a medal to the home institute, make a good contribution to the contest for the main team prizes that were awarded to the three best teams. But this rivalry was full of generosity and respect for the opponent, and the medals went to the really best athletes. In short, this year’s Universiada was a real sports holiday for students. As the president said, we see a “strong and vigorous generation, striving for lofty goals and entering into life with a broad outlook, who are a worthy successor started our transformation.”

The final chord of the Universiada, which once again showed the high results of a large-scale work carried out in the country for educating a comprehensively developed younger generation, was the award ceremony for the strongest team. First place was awarded to the Tashkent city team received original congratulations of President Islam Karimov to participants of the Universiada-2010 and Damas car. The same vehicles manufactured close to Andijon, in Asaka, were awarded to teams of Andijon and Navoi regions, who won the second and third places.

The fifth Republican Universiada has ended and the baton passed to Bukhoro where the flames of the sixth students’ games will break out three years later. Symbolically, in the same year in 2013, Kazan, Russia, will host the World Universiada. And the best representatives of the Uzbek student sports will necessarily carry the flag of the country in this global forum with dignity and pride.