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Sakhalin project of winter sports center presented in Sochi

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, February 10. /ITAR-TASS/. Sakhalin’s project of a center for winter sports, which will offer training facilities for athletes before the 2018 Olympic Games, was presented in Sochi on Monday.

Press service of Sakhalin’s governor and government reports over 5,000 guests have seen the presentation already. The exhibition will be available during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi.

Sakhalin’s Governor Alexander Khoroshavin, who is in Sochi now, says participation in the region’s exhibition in the Olympic Park is a good opportunity to present to the Russian and foreign visitors the project.

“We suggest using the sports centre’s facilities for training of Russian athletes for the XXIII Winter Olympic Games in South Korean Pyeongchang in 2018,” the governor said.

“The project was designed by Moscow specialists, who are authors of the Olympic Sochi’s many facilities,” Dmitry Kasyan of Sakhalin’s sports ministry told Itar-Tass. “It will be a sports complex: a biathlon centre and a K-120 ski jump. The sports centre will be able to offer simultaneous training session both for biathletes and for ski jumpers.”

The local authorities have chosen a location for the centre near the Chrystal ice palace in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The biathlon centre will include a ski stadium, a hostel for 120 guests, sports halls, a club for training, facilities to store equipment, and medical services’ facilities.

“Besides, the guests will be using the existing facilities, too. Those are the Mountainous Air ski complex, which includes ten superb routes of various lengths, the Chrystal ice complex and the hostel for athletes,” Kasyan said.

“Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk has hosted a delegation of the Russian ministry of sport to see the region’s potential,” the region’s minister of sport, tourism and youth policies Oleg Saitov said. “We have also welcomed Walter Hofer, race director for ski jumping at the International Ski Federation. He liked the future project.”

Possible expenses for construction of the Olympic training centre in Sakhalin are estimated at 1.5 billion roubles (about 43 million dollars) for the biathlon complex and about 800 million roubles (about 23 million dollars) for the K-120 ski jump.