Between 18 and 22 May, a national festival of students’ sport ASSC.FEST took place in Kazan. It gathered over 2,500 students from all over Russia. The delegation of Voronezh State University was one of the largest at the festival. Our students were involved in sport and educational programmes and were among the organisers of the educational and sport sections of the festival.
Our students took first place in overall standing in table tennis. The team was comprised of Olga Belikova, a student from the Faculty of Law, Maxim Kulichenko, a student from Faculty of Applied Mathematics, Informatics, and Mechanics, and Daria Shulgina, a student from the Faculty of Geography, Geoecology, and Tourism. The prizes in individual competitions were awarded as follows: Daria Shulgina, first place among women, Olga Belikova, third place among women, and Maxim Kulichenko, third place among men.
Daria Shulgina was the winner of the table tennis competitions. She shared her impressions about the event:
“We were at the ASSC Championship of Russia. Before the event, we passed the selection stage at VSU. Then, our students’ sports club “Khitschnye Bobry” (Rapacious Beavers) was invited to take part in the semi-final of the ASSC Championship in Kazan. The competitions were held within different disciplines: football, volleyball, chess, table tennis, and others. Our table tennis team, Olga Belikova, Daria Shulgina, and Maxim Kulichenko, took first place in overall standing. All in all, there were four table tennis teams from Kazan, Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and Voronezh.”
Alexander Shvetsov, a student from the Faculty of Economics, won third place in the badminton competitions.
The delegation also included a team which was only comprised of international students, who showed good results in the 6х6 football competitions. Sofia Perch, a student from the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, took third place in individual chess competitions.
Nikita Klishin, a student from the Faculty of Applied Mathematics, Informatics, and Mechanics and a representative of VSU in the ASSC.FEST educational programme:
“I participated in the educational programme at the festival and represented our student sports club “Khitschnye Bobry”. I was looking for ideas to improve our club, shared experience, and learned how other student sport clubs work in other Russian universities. I was very lucky. I had a chance to meet a lot of interesting people and listen to very informative talks. We have already started to use the knowledge I received at the event to solve the most pressing issues. As for athletes, out table tennis team showed very good results both in individual competitions and in overall standing. I hope next year our students will bring even more medals home! I was at the festival for the first time and I was amazed by the atmosphere of energy, positive emotions, and progress. Sport competitions were absolutely astonishing, and the educational programme was very educative! And, of course, the opportunity to visit Kazan was an extra bonus to the eventful programme of the festival. I would like to go again next year, too!”
Igor Kotok, the head of the VSU delegation and a specialist from the Department of Student Affairs, told us about what ASSC.FEST was like for our team:
We spent a lot of hours preparing to get a chance to visit the festival, then we waited for the results, and finally the competitions. Because of the eventful programme, there was not a single chance to relax even for a minute. The location was huge and you had to hurry up to be on time. I believe that the VSU team showed a very good result and proved once again that our students’ sport club “Khitschnye Bobry” (Rapacious Beavers) lives up to its name. The guys are very happy that they had a chance to take part in one of the largest national events. Some of them have already started preparing for a new season of the championship to show even a better result next time.”
