FINA Champs Bidders Gather in Lausanne -- Federations Focus

(ATR) Six cities will compete for the rights to host the 2021 and 2023 editions of the FINA world championships.

The aquatics federation says the interested cities of Abu Dhabi, Buenos Aires, Doha, Tokyo, Istanbul and Nanjing all met in Lausanne on Tuesday for an informational meeting on hosting the FINA world championships.

Topics discussed during the meeting included the benefit, economic impact and legacy that comes with hosting the FINA world championships, one of the most popular sporting events according to the federation.

"To have so many potential candidates at this stage demonstrates the value of our major event. With your support, aquatics continues to be a brand of excellence at global scale," Cornel Marculescu, FINA executive director, said.

The interested cities listened to presentations on marketing, digital strategy, television broadcasting and accommodation, as well as the timeline for the bidding procedure.

The six cities will now have to submit a formal host city agreement proposal to FINA by October 26, 2015. FINA will decide on the hosts for the 2021 and 2023 championships in Dubai on November 8, 2015 after hearing final presentations by all of the bids.

The 2015 FINA world championships will take place in Kazan, Russia from July 24 to August 9.

France Will Bid for 2023 Rugby World Cup

The French Rugby Federation confirmed on Saturday they will be one of five countries vying to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

Although the deadline to express interest is June 2016, France joins the United States, Ireland, South Africa and Italy in competing for the rights to host the tournament after the bidding process opened mid-May.

"We are delighted with the strong level of serious interest from unions and governments in Rugby World Cup 2023 at this very early stage, which highlights the enormous hosting appeal of Rugby World Cup as a low-risk, high-return economic, social and sporting driver and we welcome further dialogue as the process progresses," Rugby World Cup tournament director Alan Gilpin said.

England will host this year’s Rugby World Cup, with Japan to follow in 2019.

Russian President Invited to Fencing Championships

The International Fencing Federation president Alisher Usmanov asked Vladimir Putin to attend the world fencing championships in Moscow on July 13-20.

Usmanov says he is pleased to invite the president of Russia and believes IOC president Thomas Bach will be in attendance as well.

The federation president is the first person from Russia to lead an international federation. He says the championship will have big television contracts in place from Euronews, Eurosport and CNN.

Vladimir Putin has so far only wished Russian athletes success in the upcoming championship. He has yet to confirm that he will be there for the championship.

Written by Kevin Nutley

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