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Wisla hands over the flag of the 2011 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival to the Liberec Region
Tuesday March 10 2009 04:58 PM
The Liberec Region has received the organisers’ flag of the 10th European Youth Olympic Winter Festival 2011. The symbolic baton was handed over to Stanislav Eichler, President of the Liberec Region, during the closing ceremony in Wisla, the birthplace of the Ski Jumping legend Adam Malysz, and one of the five venues of the 2009 Festival, which has just finished at the weekend.
The flag of the European Olympic Committees (EOC), which has been organising Youth Festivals since the 1990’s, was passed on to the President of the Liberec Region by Guido de Bondt, Secretary General of the Belgian Olympic Committee and at the same time the Chair of the EOC EYOF Commission. In his brief speech, Stanislav Eichler greeted all the participants of the closing party and invited them to the Liberec Region, where this Sports Festival will continue in two years time.
The six days of competitions of the 9th EYOWF 2009 in Poland were closely watched by a delegation consisting of representatives of the Liberec Region and members of the 2011 Organising Committee. “We came here to first and foremost obtain experience and knowledge. We discussed questions of security, transportation, accommodation and volunteer recruitment with our Polish colleagues. The organisation of EYOWF 2009 was extremely complicated due to the bad weather conditions and constant snowfall. A number of the competitions even had to be cancelled,” adds the Executive Director of the Organising Committee Kateřina Nyčová.
An important mission of the delegation was to present the Liberec Region to the Festival participants, who came from more than 40 European countries. On the 17th of February, for example, Szczyrk’s cultural centre hosted a Czech Night, where the chair of the European Olympic Committees Patrick Hickey and Guido de Bondt were among the guests.
Martin Ditrich,director of the public benefit corporation EYOWF 2011, had this to say about the event. “In light of the favourable responses, the Czech Night was a success. We particularly focused on the presentation of the Liberec Region. The programme consisted of a drum show by the group Aries, comprised of young drummers and musicians from Liberec, a performance by the dance group Ilma from Jablonec nad Nisou and a fashion show by Rea Models Agency from Liberec. Samples of Czech cuisine were also included. We also presented publications about the 2011 Festival, the Liberec Region and a special issue of our bulletin on the activities of the Organising Committee. A number of people acknowledged with a smile that the Polish organisers had not given out information to such an extent.”
One third of the Czech team at EYOWF 2009 consisted of young athletes from sport clubs from the Liberec Region. In the eight contests out of nine which they took part in, the Czech team won one silver and one bronze medal. The greatest success was by 17-year-old Jakub Gräf, a skier of Dukla Liberec, competing in the 10km free technique. The pair Gabriela Kubová – Petr Seknička from Brno added a bronze in Figure Skating.
The 10th EYOWF will take place in the Liberec Region from the 12th to 19th of February 2011 with more than 1500 athletes from more than 40 European countries participating in the event. The selected venues for eight disciplines – Alpine Skiing, Cross Country Skiing, Biathlon, Ice Hockey, Nordic Combined, Ski Jumping, Snowboarding – are located in Liberec, Jablonec nad Nisou, Rejdice, Bedřichov, Rokytnice nad Jizerou and Harrachov.
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