Slobodan Brankovic, legendary athlete, 6 national records holder and General secretary of the Athletic Federation of Serbia, spoke today before the students of the Faculty of sport of the ‘UNION University – Nikola Tesla’ in Belgrade.

Member of the fastest ‘white relay’ from the 1987. World Championships wished students a successful start and presented the Federation’s work so far. - Behind every great performance stands excellent management. Results achieved in athletics in the last few years are no mere coincidence, but the result of constant investment in development, athletes and coaches. We discovered that young athletes follow this trend of actively taking part in sports up to junior categories, and afterwards lack interest in achieving better results. That psychology had to be changed. It is then that I started to think of a way to change results in senior categories, for those results matter, attract media attention and sponsors. We managed to triple the budget of the Athletic Federation of Serbia and send our athletes abroad to top academies. The results are clear – said General Secretary.

Students had the opportunity to ask questions, and based on the agreement between the University of sports and the Federation, take part in the upcoming European Indoor Championships 3-5 March 2017.

This would be a great opportunity for all the students from the Faculty of Sports to implement theoretical knowledge into organization of such great international event. - European Indoor Championships is going to be one of the biggest national projects in the last few years. Large number of volunteers will participate in the organization, so I would like to invite you to join us and enrich yourself with such great experience. National television informed me that this will be one of the most challenging events to broadcast. Athletes will be covered with 54 cameras, a lot more than European Championships in Vaterpolo that was, for example, covered with 17. Adaptation of the arena starts on the 1st of January 2017. Due to technical needs we will have to remove both eastern and western part of stands. This sport manifestation will absolutely live up to the challenge because it will significantly increase tourism growth and fill all the accommodation capacity in Belgrade – concluded Brankovic. Athletic Federation of Serbia also applied for organizing World Indoor Championships 2020, and plans to finish National athletic center until then.