Aliaksandr Bahdanovich (BLR), Beijing 2008 canoe sprint champion and Belarus Member of the Parliament, and Olga Mazurenok (BLR), 2018 European Marathon Champion, were the latest to join the team of Star Ambassadors for the Minsk 2019 2^nd European Games. They were announced on occasion of the Minsk City Day celebrations on 7-9 September.

“It is an honour to receive this acknowledgement,” Bahdanovich stated following the ceremony at the end of the canoe sprint dragon boat regatta, as part of Minsk City Day events. “I am happy to promote the leading European multisport competition and will do my best to fulfil the task of Star Ambassador. I am confident that the European Games will be a successful event”, added.

The canoe event – held on the Svisloch River on 8 September – featured a series of famous Belarusian athletes together with amateur teams made up of MEGOC staff, aspiring volunteers for Minsk 2019, university students and the Belarusian Republican Youth Union (BRSM).

Minsk European Games Organising Committee (MEGOC) Deputy CEO Anatoly Kotov commented that naming Aliaksandr Minsk 2019 Star Ambassador was an important step towards the event. “We are very pleased to entrust this title to such an outstanding athlete. He will promote the Games in the sports world and also in our society” he stated following the ceremony. “I am sure that Aliaksandr will use each and every opportunity to make the European Games even more valuable and bright”, concluded.

While marathon runner Olga Mazurenok was awarded with the certificate of Minsk 2019 Star Ambassador on the occasion of Minsk Half Marathon, where thousands of both professionals and amateurs from Belarus and abroad took part in the 21.1km race.

MEGOC Chair George Katulin praised the great success achieved by the Belarusian athlete at the European Athletics Championship in Berlin and stated: “We are happy that Olga joined the team and confident that, thanks to her passion and dynamism, will attract more and more athletics passionate to the forthcoming European Games”.

MEGOC launched the Star Ambassador project for Minsk 2019 earlier this year to spread the word about Europe’s premier multisport event that will take place from 21-30 June next year in the Belarusian capital.

Four-time Olympic champion and two-time World Champion biathlete Darya Domracheva was announced as the first Star Ambassador on 24 July, followed by Famous circus trainers Askold and Edgard Zapashnye.

Future Star Ambassadors are expected to include valuable representatives from the world of sport, art and culture from Belarus and other countries.