Bid chiefs will make sure land for competition and non-competition venues is reserved, after they approved all the necessary regulations on land reservation.

Almaty Mayor Akhmetzhan Yesimov also agreed to establish a Public Council and a Board of Trustees of the Bid.

The decisions were made at a meeting in the Mayor's office in Almaty, designed to give stakeholders a briefing on the status of the bid.

The city in Kazakhstan is seen as an early favourite in the 2022 race, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) due to decide which of the five bids with become Candidate Cities at its Executive Board meeting on July 8 and 9. 

Mayor Yesimov was joined by the secretary general of the National Olympic Committee of Kazakhstan, Timur Dosymbetov, the chairman of Kazakhstan Agency of Sports and Physical Culture, Tastanbek Yessentayev, representatives of public organisations, media, Bid Committee and sports and city officials.

They were updated on the Bid Committee's presence at the IOC's observer programme for the Sochi Winter Games, and the delivery of the Applicant File - with Almaty to first to hand theirs in to the IOC on March 10.

Almaty 2022 were at the Sochi 2014 Games to learn as much as they could about staging an Olympics and Paralympics, as well as to promote their bid ©ITG



Yesimov opened the meeting by saying: "At the last session of the XXI Assembly of People of Kazakhstan the President of our country, Nursultan Nazarbayev, for the first time on such a big political event, said that Kazakhstan is very serious about winning the right to host the Games.

"These words are the highest political support we can get".

During the meeting, Yesimov approved the Bid Committee's report on the application phase and the current planning status.

There was also a discussion about preparations for the IOC video conference on May 8 - which all five cities will take part in - with a Working Group of the Bid Committee taking this on.

"As of now I think we can be happy with what the bid committee and all stakeholders of Almaty 2022 have done," added Yesimov.

"It is a challenge but we have some talent here to accept it.

"Almaty always was and still is a very sporting city.

"People love sport, summer and winter and nature is part of our daily life.

"If we combine that with an excellent technical job we have a good chance to become Candidate City.

"But we still have to work hard for this especially when the IOC allows us to present the bid at the upcoming video conference."

Almaty Mayor Akhmetzhan Yesimov joined thousands of others in running the Almaty Marathon yesterday ©Almaty 2022



The meeting was followed by the Almaty Marathon, with Mayor Yesimov joining 9,000 in the race.

Yessentayev, chairman of Kazakhstan Agency of Sports and Physical Culture, said: "We have support of all levels of Government and the sports community of Kazakhstan is backing us, too.

"Let's hope that our technical plan is good enough to convince the IOC to shortlist us as Candidate City.

"If that's the case, we will not just try to become an excellent technical bid but also would show the Olympic Family that Kazakhstan is a very open and friendly country.

"And with all our experience in hosting big sports events, like the Asian Winter Games 2011, AIBA's boxing World Championships 2013 or the Winter Universiade 2017, just to name a few, we will be prepared to host the Olympic Winter Games in eight years if we get the honour to host them. Kazakhstan is a young country and developing quickly."

Norway's capital Oslo, China's capital Beijing, Lviv in Ukraine and Kraków in Poland are also bidding to stage the 2022 Games.

The winning bid is due to be announced at the IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31 2015.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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