Press releases

MINSK, 5 June (BelTA) – The Minsk Palace of Sports will play host to a send-off ceremony for the Belarusian national team to Baku 2015 European Games on 6 June, BelTA has learned.

The event will be attended by Belarusian leading athletes and coaches. The Belarusian national team for the 2015 European Games in Baku will comprise 150 athletes and 53 coaches. Belarusians will complete in acrobatics, boxing, freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, cycling road, beach volleyball, artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, canoeing, judo, swimming, synchronized swimming, diving, trampoline, archery, shooting, table tennis, triathlon, fencing, badminton, karate, sambo, taekwondo.

The list of athletes to partake in the inaugural European Games includes Belarus’ best athletes in rhythmic gymnastics Melitina Staniouta and Yekaterina Galkina, Olympic champions Alexander Bogdanovich and Andrei Bogdanovich (canoe), Vadim Makhnev and Roman Petroshenko (both - kayak), Sergei Martynov and Konstantin Lukashik (shooting).

The send-off ceremony will include a presentation of a mascot of the Belarusian national team at the 2015 European Games in Baku. The Belarusian mascot named Agrik was developed by OAO Belagroprombank, the general partner of the National Olympic Committee. Agrik symbolizes physical strength and a game spirit.

The first European Games will be held in Baku on 12-28 June. Over 6,000 athletes will compete in 20 sports. The program also includes 3x3 basketball and beach soccer. In 11 events athletes will compete for spots in the 2016 Olympics. The first group of Belarusian athletes will leave for Baku on 10 June.