Press conference
In hotel Arena in Maribor a press conference was held before the departure of Slovenian athletes to the 25th winter universiade in Erzurum, Turkey. Slovene colors will be represented by 55 student athletes who will compete in eight of the eleven disciplines. 22 members of staff will accompany the athletes to the event and one referee. There a several reasons for a press conference in Maribor but the most important is that Maribor –together with Ruše and Zreče – is the organizer of the next Universiade in 2013. The most athletes in the expedition are represented by the hockey players, led by Murajica Pajić, the trainer of a Maribor hockey club.
The expedition to Erzurum in led by the professor Peter Sitar and Mr. Andrej Pišl. President of the organizing committee of the Universiade Maribor 2013, Mr. Tone Vogrinec has pointed to the important fact, that the Slovenian event takes place directly after Erzurum where Universiade is a national project of the highest level. The Turks have invested around 500 million Euros in the Universiade, which in their case, is a development project of the decade. In our case the investments will be minimal, but we can match with the Turkish organizers in the quality of the organization of the sports events, was determined Vogrinec.
Dr. Kugovnik, the President of FISU has once again warned, before the departure to Erzurum, that Slovenia would have to change its attitude towards the university sport and to the Universiade as well. It is certainly a developmental opportunity that is underestimated by too far many in Slovenia.
