KronBars scored 1506 points in the rating and outran their competitors - the Moscow-based Senator club of the The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) and the club KAI-Zilant of the Tupolev Kazan National Research Technical University (KNRTU-KAI). Gornaya Mashina from the Ural State Mining University (USMU, Sverdlovsk Region) and one more representative of Moscow - the Phoenix club from the Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (IMMU) ranked among the top 5 Russian student sports clubs. One more representative of St. Petersburg came 17th in the ranking: the Baltic Phoenix club of the Ustinov Baltic State Technical University. The ranking of the best student sports clubs in Russia includes 56 participants from 8 federal districts of Russia.
Representatives of ASSC noted that the rating was formed on the basis of all the applications received from all over Russia. It accounts for the clubs’ activities from September 2016 to August 2017. The number of activities offered by a club, events conducted by a club, the number of open sports leagues, sports classes, teams, prizes won at competitions of various levels - all of these criteria were taken into account in the evaluation of clubs in the ranking. Awareness-building efforts, such as the number of references in the media, photo and video reports, activity in the social networks and other activities, were also taken into account.
"Our club is developing in all directions, that's why we are not only organizing sports events, but also engaging in "side" activities - involving fans, photographers, videographers, reporters and so on," - points out Evgenii Raskin, head of ITMO's Department of Youth Policy and head of KronBars sports club - “Our project "Feed the Snow Leopard", our sports calendar and others can be named in this regard”.
This year’s ranking will also be a part of the finalists’ qualification in the contest "Best Student Sports Club of 2016-2017 Academic Year". There will be 6 categories in this competition: "Best Student Sports Club", "Best Organization of Student Sports Club", "Best Effort in Promotion of University Teams and Fan Relations", "Best Effort in Promotion of Healthy Lifestyle, Physical Culture and Sports on a University Level" "Best Awareness-building Effort by SSC" and "Best SSC-organizer of the In-house Stage of the ASSC Championship in academic year 2016-2017".
KronBars has been nominated in five of the six categories. The finals of the contest “Best Student Sports Club" and its Awards Ceremony will take place at the All-Russian Forum of Student Sports Clubs in Kazan on November 23-26.
Evgenii Raskin
"One can see from the rating that we are not so far ahead of our colleagues. There are many runner-ups. Of course, we will try to win in the main category "Best Student Sports Club". However, we will also try to win in other categories: for example, in the category "Best Awareness-building Effort by SSC". Our club has always been famous for building sports awareness," - Raskin says.
Evgenii Raskin adds that KronBars puts the main emphasis in all its activities on building the brand name for itself. And the strength of the brand is determined not by an individual effort of every team, but rather by the whole club’s image. The more people become fans of KronBars - the more of them attend its games; this way, the more people become aware of the club’s activities - and not only at the university level: at the city and national levels, too, he notes.
According to this year’s results, KronBars teams in mountain, water and ski tourism, handball, checkers, cheerleading, snowboarding and badminton won the prizes in the city championship of St. Petersburg. KronBars teams for sports tourism and cheerleading also bring medals from the All-Russian and International tournaments every year.
But the Club doesn’t rest on its laurels.
"This year we launched a rather bold experiment when we changed the format of the physical education classes for first-to-third-year students to one based on a sports club model. The experiment was successful. We will also make improvements in the future. As for higher achievements, the task is to gain a foothold in the top 3 of the St. Petersburg University Championship (70 sports, 50 universities)," - Evgenii Raskin adds.
KronBars was officially founded on September 25, 2013. However, it got its name earlier. The name of the team stems from combining the name of the Russian university score-rating system (abbreviated BARS) and the name of Kronverksky prospekt, the locations of ITMO’s main building. The club's mascot - Snow Leopard Tim - was chosen later on.
Today, KronBars encompasses: 32 specialized sports clubs (table tennis, swimming, fitness, badminton, billiards, Alpine skiing, rock climbing, sports tourism and others); 5 open sports leagues (mini-football, volleyball, streetball, table tennis, checkers); 14 teams regularly competing at university level (mini-football, basketball, volleyball, hockey, handball, football, cheerleading and others); as well as more than 20 teams representing ITMO at university-level competitions in various sports (arm sport, track and field, tennis, bowling, swimming, etc.).
Since 2014, KronBars teams have been participating and winning at international tournaments (EuroRoma, Moscow Games). And, starting in 2015, the club has started hosting all-Russian events aimed at raising large-scale sports awareness among students and sharing club’s experience and networking. Last year, KronBars already won the ASSC contest "Best Student Sports Club".
Translated by Eugenia Romanova
