MOSCOW, December 17 (R-Sport) - Russia is a contender to host either the European Aquatics Championships or the European Short Course Swimming Championships in the near future, the country’s top swimming official told R-Sport on Monday.
Russia has never hosted either event, but it will stage the 2015 World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, capital of the republic of Tatarstan.
“Russia has been offered the chance to host the European championships in long or short course,” said Vladimir Salnikov, president of the All-Russian Swimming Federation. He suggested that the proposal came at a recent meeting of the European Swimming League’s technical committee.
“The process has begun. We’ll prepare our proposal and discuss it. It’s completely possible, I think, that we could host a championship like that in our country.”
The earliest event Russia could host would be the 2015 short course championships. However, no country has ever hosted that competition and the world championships in the same year. The next free slot for the European Aquatics Championships is in 2018.
In a separate development, Russian swimming bosses came under fire from their own athletes Monday when two national team swimmers said that they had been left stranded in Denmark after the federation apparently forgot to buy them tickets home from the European short course championships.
