The 25th Summer Universiade hosted in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, concluded on July 12.
For 12 days, student athletes from around the world competed against each other in 14 different sports. A total of 8,166 participants from 122 countries took part in this multi-sport event where Universiade records were broken in four athletics* events and no less than 30 swimming events.
On July 12 the Universiade flame in front of the Belgrade Arena was extinguished* by a giant robot. In the presence of all Universiade participants, Dragan Dilas, mayor of Belgrade, returned the FISU (International University Sports Federation) five-star flag to FISU President George E. Killian who handed it over to Wang Rong, acting mayor of Shenzhen, the host city of the 26th Summer Universiade in 2011.
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies on two international waterways, at the confluence* of the Sava and Danube rivers, where Central Europe’s Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans.
With a population of 1.63 million (official estimate in 2007), Belgrade is the third largest city in southeastern Europe, after Istanbul and Athens, and largest in Danubian Europe.
One of the oldest cities in Europe, with archeological* finds tracing settlements to as early as the 6th millennium B.C., Belgrade’s wider city area was the birthplace of the largest prehistoric culture of Europe, the Vinca culture.
As a strategic location, the city has been the site of over 115 wars and razed* to the ground 44 times since the ancient period by countless armies of the East and West.
Belgrade has the status of a separate territorial unit in Serbia, with its own autonomous city government. Its territory is divided into 17 municipalities. Belgrade is the central economic hub of Serbia, and the capital of Serbian culture, education and science.
Source： Official website Editor： 王佳