Europe’s best sport shooters are aiming for clean bull’s eyes at the European Airgun Championships 2012 in Heinola on 14-20 February. The competition has taken up the challenge to promote clean sport. It launches the series of major international sports events in Finland for 2012.
The European Airgun Championships involves 45 countries, almost 600 athletes, over 230 coaches or team leaders, 120 volunteers and over 20 international media representatives. The last 16 athletes for the London 2012 Olympic Games will be selected during the competition and Finland aims to make more selections in addition to the four already made. The referees carry golden pins during the competition to show that they promote fair play.
– Doping-free sport has been set as one of the values to be promoted in the competition. Antidoping work is important to us. We want to do our share to promote clean sport and support the antidoping programme and work against doping carried out by our international association here in Finland as well as on an international level. The European Championships provide a great opportunity to have an influence, remind people and commit them to the Clean Win programme. We want to act as the ambassadors of clean sport by accepting the baton and promoting the matter further, says Risto Aarrekivi, Secretary General of the Finnish Shooting Sport Federation.
– We Finnish athletes would like to wish the sport shooters from other countries a warm welcome to a fair and clean competition. Together we will have a great competition in the spirit of clean sport. I also challenge everyone in the audience to take a stand for clean sport by signing the grand petition, says shooting athlete and Olympic medallist Juha Hirvi.
– Real athletes, irrespective of their type of sport or nationality, will work actively to promote clean sport. Last August at the Enduro World Championships in Kotka and in Hamina, we showed the world that motorcyclists drive fast but clean. Now we challenge the sport shooters to organise their own clean sports competition, says Finland’s top woman enduro champion, Marita Nyqvist. Nyqvist brought with her the emblem for fair play in international sporting events, the golden baton.
The fair play challenge campaign for international sports events organised in Finland is a part of the Clean Win programme. The golden baton challenges its receiver to promote clean sport and to commit to its values. The challenge campaign was initiated in 2009 by Pirjo Puskala, Chief Executive of the European Youth Olympic Festival. By now, the baton has been passed to the European Youth Olympic Festival (2009), the World Floorball Championships (2010), the World Synchronized Skating Championships (2011) and the Enduro World Championships (2011).
The Clean Win programme information desk will be in Heinola on Friday the 17th and Saturday the 18th of February from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. At the information desk you can sign the grand petition on behalf of clean sport and test how well you recognise the brilliant sporting stars of the Clean Win programme.
The Finnish Antidoping Agency’s and Fazer’s Clean Win programme (www.puhtaastiparas.fi) was launched in May 2008. It honours clean athletes and the values of fair play. FINADA wishes to shine the spotlight on athletes who perform ethically: respecting their sport, their competitors and themselves. This programme invites Finnish sports fans, sporting organisations, the friends and relatives of athletes and athletes themselves to get involved in fair play.
For further details, please contact:
Susanna Sokka
FINADA – Information Manager
Mobile +358 (0)40 740 7477
Risto Aarrekivi
Finnish Shooting Sports Federation – Secretary General
Mobile +358 (0)40 774 6950
Ville Salonen
Finnish Motorcycling Federation – organisation and youth activities
Tel. +358 (0)207 789 964