The Cities of Zagreb and Rijeka and the Universities of Zagreb and Rijeka won the special Order of Merit Award for outstanding contribution in the preparation and implementation of the European University Games (EUG) Zagreb – Rijeka 2016.Croatian Academic Sports Federation won the Best National Federation Awards and EUG 2016 Volunteer Team won the Fair Play Award.
Mayor Milan Bandić presented the awards at a press conference held earlier today, on April 10.
The award ceremony was held on Saturday in Coimbra, Portugal, where the next European University Games will take place.
“It was a great pleasure to go on stage to receive this special award and on behalf of the City of Zagreb because it shows that we have truly done our best in preparing and executing this project,” Deputy Mayor Vesna Kusin said, adding that the prize serves as an incentive to invest more in university sports. “We have proven that the City of Zagreb is among the best when it comes to European university sports and we need to cherish and invest in it.”
Zrinko Čuštonja, president of the Croatian Academic Sports Federation, said that he was very proud of EUG 2016 because it was a successful project which has set new standards for sports events organisation. EUG has had a direct impact on public finances in Zagreb and Croatia – it cost more than 100 million HRK and infrastructure investments in Zagreb and Rijeka amounted to 500 million HRK, which was covered by European funds.
Great cooperation of the Cities of Zagreb and Rijeka and their respective Universities was also mentioned, as well as the cooperation by other participants – students, volunteer athletes and nearly 12,000 technical service staff.
