The competition is held annually by the Association of Student Sports Clubs of Russia (ASSC). There are 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".
This year, a determining factor for participants in the "Best Student Sports Club" nomination was their position in ASSC's recent 2016-2017 ranking (available in Russian) of student sports clubs. The ranking accounted for the clubs’ activities in the academic year of 2016-2017 (from September 2016 to August 2017). It included 56 participants from eight federal districts of Russia.
ITMO’s student sports club KronBars topped the ranking with 1506 points total. However, the winners in all six categories were announced at the finals of the All-Russian Forum of Student Sports Clubs, which was held in Kazan from November 23 to 26.
KronBars manged to not only preserve its last year’s title of the “Best student sports club of Russia”, but win in two other categories of the contest as well. The jury recognized KronBars for their awareness-building effort and organization. KAI-Zilant club of the Tupolev Kazan National Research Technical University (KNRTU-KAI) won silver and Senator club of the The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) won bronze
As Evgenii Raskin, head of ITMO's Department of Youth Policy and head of KronBars sports club, points out, KronBars - on top of taking part in this competition - also prepared a video-presentation (available in Russian). All of the student sports club’s work in the previous academic year was captured there. An expert jury evaluated the style, structure and content of the clubs' video presentations, as well as their organizational, public and sports activities. Then, the contestants answered the experts’ questions. All of the participants of the Forum, including the representatives of more than 300 Russian student sports clubs, then cast their votes, which also contributed to the final scores.
Evgenii Raskin
"Over the past year, our club has only consolidated its position: we held a number of all-Russian events, increased the number of sports clubs and teams, our athletes won in a number of major competitions and tournaments. Our club’s representatives are invited as experts to various educational events in the field of student sports, sharing their experience with other universities. A significant result in our club’s development was achieved when we changed the format of the physical education classes at the university to one based on a sports clubs model. Now every student chooses a sports class of their liking," - comments Evgenii Raskin.
He then adds that KronBars will continue further development and promotion of its brand through the organization of mass sports events, teamwork and professional achievements of the club’s athletes. Besides, next year the All-Russian Forum of Student Sports Clubs will be held at ITMO in St. Petersburg. ITMO’s and ASSC’s representatives have reached the respective decision recently.
KronBars (available in Russian), ITMO’s student sports club, was officially founded in 2013. Today, it is a team of athletes, sport managers, journalists, photographers and students who promote student sports at ITMO and beyond, using a modern approach to sports administration and marketing. The club has 35 specialized sports clubs, 15 teams and 5 open leagues. Around 4,000 students are part of KronBars.
Since 2014, KronBars teams have been participating and winning at international tournaments (EuroRoma, Moscow Games). Since 2015, the club has started hosting all-Russian events aimed at raising large-scale sports awareness among students and sharing its experience.
