Excitement Growing in Baku for European Games -- ATRadio

(ATR)The Azerbaijani capital of Baku will open theinaugural European Games in just 25 days.

"The excitement is really growing inside the city of Baku,"Baku 2015 chief operating officer Simon Clegg tellsAround the Rings.

"All in all, it's been a great challenge and the team here has risen wonderfully to the challenge.And I think we're going to put on a fantastic games."

Over 5,000 athletes from all 50 NOCs of Europe will compete in Baku with an average team size of 115 athletes.The games run June 12-28.

When asked for his perspective on controversial comments made by SportAccord president Marius Vizer at the 2015 SportAccord Convention in Sochi last month, Clegg says Vizer chose the wrong setting for his speech.

"There are ample opportunities for stakeholders of the Olympic Movement to engage directly with the IOC without perhaps the need of making their points so publicly.

"In my 31 years in the Olympic Movement, I've learned that the Olympic Movement is based on a philosophy of evolution rather than revolution."

The second edition of the European Games will be hosted by the Netherlands, and Clegg predicts success for the event set to be staged in 2019.

"There's no question that they are a sports-loving country. They've got excellent organizational skills."

Clegg adds, "The concept [for the Games] will be different, but this is one of the great strengths of the European Games.

"It's still young enough that it can still be very flexible and very adaptable to the host country."

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Home page photo: Baku 2015/Instagram

Modified sound effect: Sound Bible,GoGo/Attrib. 3.0

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