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Kazan Universiade torch relay race ends outside city’s Kremlin walls

The Universiade Flame will be lit from the torch during the opening ceremony at Kazan Arena

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

KAZAN, July 6 (Itar-Tass) - The 27th Summer Universiade Torch Relay Race has ended outside the Kazan Kremlin.

The final leg of the race started in the Universiade Village whereby the torch was passed on by 53 persons, including First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Minister of Sport Vitaly Mutko who handed over the torch to Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov. Tennis player Anastasia Myskina was the last one to carry the torch.

The race was supported by a large number of volunteers, guests and local residents, mainly students. The last several dozen metres of the race was run in the warm summer rain, which only added more fun and excitement.

The Flame was ignited on June 15, 2012 at Paris’ Sorbonne which hosted the first international student games in 1923. The torch then travelled around the world aboard the sailing vessel Sedov. On July 15, during a major international regatta, the torch was handed over to a team of cadets - the keepers of the Universiade Flame.

The barque with the Flame sailed for 45,000 nautical miles and repeated the voyage undertaken by the greatest travellers.

On Russian Students’ Day, January 25, the Russian stage of the Torch Relay Race started. Moving westward from the east of the country, the torch travelled through 30 major student centres, Khabarovsk, Yakutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Volgograd, Novosibirsk, Tyumen, Yekaterinburg, Arkhangelsk, Stavropol, Pyatigorsk, Sochi, Rostov on Don, St. Petersburg, Vladimir, Moscow, Perm, Izhevsk, Kirov, Nizhny Novgorod, Yoshkar Ola, Cheboksary, Ulyanovsk, Saransk, Penza, Saratov, Samara, Orenburg, and Ufa.

The race then continued across 43 municipalities in Tatarstan. The Universiade Flame will be lit from the torch during the opening ceremony at Kazan Arena at 21:00 on Saturday, July 6.

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