KronBars Student Sports Club Awarded 10 Million Rubles to Promote Sports in St. Petersburg

Participants of the student sports-centric competition devised initiatives aimed at increasing youth interest in various kinds of physical activity. Each suggestion was evaluated based on its relevance, level of innovation, effectiveness, feasibility, scale, public accessibility, and the amount of co-funding. A total of 131 Russian universities took part in the competition; these were divided into three categories based on the size of the student body: under 5,000 people, under 10,000 people, and over 10,000 people. KronBars came second in the latter category, scoring 92 out of 100 points. The 32 contestants in this category competed for 5 grants.

At the competition, KronBars presented the project University of Sport, which includes the following initiatives:

• organization of the competitions Kronbars Games and Kronbars Future (featuring phygital (physical + digital – Ed.) sports, esports, laser tag, and drone racing);
• organization of sports competitions in sports tourism, ballroom dancing, cheerleading, table tennis, chess, and other sports for students of St. Petersburg;
• opening a school for sports managers;
• establishment of a running community of St. Petersburg universities and create a digital platform with community rankings where each runner will be able to track the number of runs, the distance, their personal achievements, and the performance of their universities;
• organization of national events aimed at promoting phygital sports, as well as the Esports Leaders forum and the national congress on student sports;
• launch a course in marketing of student sports clubs for specialized staff;
• purchasing new equipment for ITMO’s sports clubs and varsity teams.

“The main objective of the project is to increase the number of students who regularly engage in sports and to share our best practices with other universities. Here at ITMO, students have set a high standard of physical training; at the same time, we are always on the lookout for opportunities to improve our infrastructure and come up with new event formats that will be popular with the younger audience,” shared Dmitry Rusanov, the head of the KronBars sports club.