President Backs Gwangju’s Bid for Universiade
By Kim Jae-won
Staff Reporter
The International University Sports Federation (FISU) evaluation commissioners touched down in Korea on Monday to begin their inspection of Gwangju, a 2015 Universiade candidate for host.
The five members paid President Lee Myung-bak an afternoon visit in Chung Wa Dae in Seoul before setting off for the southwestern city.
Stefan Bergh of Sweden, the vice president of FISU, is leading the group, along with Malumbete Ralethe from South Africa, Turk Kemal Tamer and Japanese Hisato Igarashi.
The members of the team, with the exception of Brazilian Luciano Cabral, visited the ``City of Light'' last year to evaluate its failed 2013 bid for the event and will have an understanding of Gwangju from last year's experience.
They will inspect the city for three days to establish whether or not it bears the necessary characteristics to host the international university students sports festival. A FISU media official, Christian Pierre, is accompanying the party.
The team is scheduled to hold a press conference to outline their inspection results on Wednesday evening.
All of them are sports leaders in their home countries, and most sportsmen and teachers at universities.
Bergh is a commissioner of the Swedish Olympic Committee (SOC). A graduate of Uppsala University, he has served for the institution as dean of the education department. The 47-year-old also served for the Swedish University Sports Federation (SUSF) for 10 years from 1989.
Igarashi was born in Tochigi, Japan. He won a gold medal in gymnastics at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. He also teaches at a university in Japan.
Cabral is a former judo champion and served as head coach of the sport. The 37-year-old is lecturing at the University of Alagoas in Brazil.
Ralethe is a medical doctor for a national hospital in South Africa, and the 42-year-old has served for the South African university sports team.
Kemal Tamer is a professor at a university in Ankara, Turkey.
The FISU evaluation commissioners were in Taipei last week and they will be staying in Gwangju until Thursday. After their stint in Korea, they are scheduled to visit Edmonton, Canada, from May 1 to 4. After completing the inspections, they will submit a report to FISU.
The organization will decide the successful city at the FISU general assembly on May 23 in Brussels, Belgium.