After years of having the FINA World Cup makes it’s annual Russian stop in Moscow, the circuit moved to Kazan in 2018. Russian Swimming Federation head Vladimir Salnikov stated that the move was both deserved and justified in an article from the Russian news outlet TASS.
Originally scheduled to remain in Moscow, the decision to move to Kazan was made in August of 2017 when the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan was awarded the 2022 Short Course World Championships.
The World Cup has made a stop in Moscow every year dating back to 2004, but in recent years Kazan has been the host of the major competitions taking place in Russia. They hosted the 2013 World University Games, the 2015 LC World Championships, and now will play host to the SC Championships in four years time. The only other Russian city to host a World Cup event is Saint Petersburg, which did so twice in the early 1990s.
Roughly translated from Russian, Salnikov states: “Kazan was in one cluster with Doha, and the transfer of the stage from Moscow to the capital of Tatarstan is unbeatable, I think this is quite deserved, because most major international swimming competitions take place in Kazan.”
“From the organization’s point of view, everything went on at a high level, the representatives of the international federation noted this,” he continued. He also noted the success of WUGs and Worlds, along with the upcoming preparation for SC Worlds, keeps everything in Kazan maintained at a high level that meets all of FINA’s requirements.
Russian swimmers performed well at the inaugural stop in Kazan, which took place September 7-9, walking away with 10 gold, 13 silver and 10 bronze medals.
The 2018 circuit will continue from September 28-30 in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
The pool in Moscow is pretty old actually. It was built for Olympic Games 1980, I guess.