By Gary Anderson

September 12 - St Petersburg will stage the second World Combat Games in OctoberThe Spartak Arena in St Petersburg, which will play host to a number of events during the SportAccord World Combat Games next month, has been officially opened in a ceremony attended by a number of high ranking officials and athletes.

The new sports complex, located on Krestovskiy Island, will be the new home of professional basketball side Spartak St Petersburg, but will also be used as a venue for the World Combat Games which are due to take place from October 18 to 26.

"A glorious event, a landmark in the sports life of St. Petersburg took place today," said chairman of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko.

"This sports complex provides a wonderful arena for training and team competitions in many sports.

"I am confident that the opening of the complex will give new strength to the Spartak basketball team.

"Russia is a country full of healthy people; we will have a healthy nation, and therefore a healthy future".

Construction on the 7,000 capacity arena began in 2010 but was accelerated to be ready in time for the second staging of the World Combat Games, which will see athletes competing across 15 sports including aikido, boxing, fencing, judo, jujitsu, karate, kendo, kickboxing, muaythai, sambo, savate, sumo, taekwondo, wrestling and wushu.

The new Spartak Arena in St Petersburg was officially opened ahead of the World Combat GamesThe new Spartak Arena in St Petersburg was officially opened ahead of the World Combat Games

























Speaking at the ceremony, the Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko, who was joined by Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, head of the 2013 World Combat Games Directorate Pavel Zhuravlev and SportAccord director general Vlad Marinescu, claimed that the new arena would provide an ideal venue for the staging of World Combat Games events.

"It's like the Olympics for combat sports, I'm sure that the competition will be held at the highest level and subsequently this arena will provide a stage for the highest standard of competitions in various sports in the future," said Poltavchenko.

"The more sports facilities we have, the higher the bar of St. Petersburg will be raised."

Taekwondo, wushu, karate and sambo will be staged at the Spartak Arena, while the Ubileinyi Sports Palace will see athletes competing in, muaythai, boxing, kickboxing, jujitsu and savate, with the SCC Petersburgsky hosting judo, aikido, wrestling, sumo, fencing and kendo.

Contact the writer of this story at gary.anderson@insidethegames,biz


Related Stories
September 2013: Former taekwondo world champion Stevenson becomes World Combat Games ambassador
July 2013: Vizer appoints Yerolimpos and Soloveychik to new SportAccord roles