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european event<br />
At the Press Conference on<br />
the eve of the “<strong>Moscow</strong> <strong>Open</strong>”<br />
tournament, the Chairman of<br />
Moscomsport, Mikhail Stepanyants,<br />
reminded journalists<br />
of the circumstances behind<br />
the idea to hold this competition.<br />
20 | www.athletics-magazine.com<br />
“We began losing athletics<br />
in <strong>Moscow</strong>” he said. “The<br />
Brothers Znamensky Memorial<br />
Meet moved from the capital<br />
to <strong>Moscow</strong> Region and <strong>Moscow</strong><br />
faced the problem of not having<br />
a competition of its own.<br />
<strong>Moscow</strong> needed its own big<br />
«<strong>Moscow</strong><br />
Yuriy<br />
Borzakovskiy<br />
international tournament. Even<br />
the Mayor of <strong>Moscow</strong>, Yuriy Luzhkov,<br />
addressed this problem<br />
and, together, we organised this<br />
competition. Now the “<strong>Moscow</strong><br />
<strong>Open</strong>” athletic tournament<br />
is one of the most important<br />
sports events held in our city.”<br />
reaches<br />
of athlet<br />
Three years ago, the new<br />
<strong>Moscow</strong> competition was<br />
quickly realised and when it<br />
was held for the second time,<br />
last year, it took third place<br />
among similar European<br />
Events and got a high status<br />
of the European Athletics Outdoor<br />
Premium Meeting.<br />
This time in <strong>Moscow</strong>, Russia’s<br />
leading athletes, acting<br />
responsibly, joined invited<br />
overseas stars to make 27<br />
countries represented in 15<br />
events on the 1st July 2009.<br />
Before the competition had<br />
started it was already obvious<br />
that it would, in all aspects,<br />
exceed that of last year. Professionally<br />
made programmes<br />
contributed to the overall effect<br />
and the quality of entrants in<br />
some events was so good that<br />
even the IAAF Super Grand<br />
Prix meetings would have<br />
been envious of the “<strong>Moscow</strong><br />
<strong>Open</strong>”.<br />
The warm, but not hot,<br />
weather helped achieve some<br />
good performances. It was<br />
thanks to the performance<br />
of <strong>Moscow</strong>’s young athletes<br />
that there were twice as many<br />
spectators in the stadium as<br />
compared to a year ago. A<br />
junior’s event was staged before<br />
the main events and all<br />
the parents and friends of the<br />
young athletes turned out to<br />
watch them. This doubled the<br />
number of spectators.<br />
On the track in the 800 metres,<br />
Yuriy Borzakovskiy starred<br />
in one of his showcase victories.<br />
Neither his fellow countrymen<br />
nor the invited Kenyan,<br />
Reuben Bett could live with
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