Childhood and sports
Sestroretsk is known as a town of childhood and sport. It is rich in sport traditions. Many famous sportsmen lived in our town, for example, football and hockey player Vsevolod Bobrov, “first goalkeeper of the republic”, Nikolay Sokolov, ice-skater Alexander Panshin and many, many others. V. Bobrov’s monument was put up in the square, not far from the railway station in 2002 and next year the museum of sport was established at school ¹ 556.
All stadiums and gyms are available to the residents of any ages in our town. For little kids and the older ones the yards are equipped with children’s sport and playgrounds. Many of them have their own names: “Ships”, “Kremlin Stars,” “Glade of Fairy Tales”, “Young fireman”. Sestroretsk’s citizens were sincerely grateful for the wonderful gift of a new playgrounds to company “Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus”. Since the opening this largest in the North-West region manufacturing automobile complex, Sestroreck has associated with it warm and friendly relations that are sure to be strengthened and expanded.
Many sport competitions are held at the football pitch, which has got the artificial covering, in the Park of Culture and Rest “Little oaks” and at many other sport grounds of the town.
Moreover, in 2008 a new football pitch was built for Sestroretsk youth sport school of the Olympic Reserve named by V. Koren’kov in settlement Alexandrovskaya. This pitch accords to all standards of the International Football Federation (FIFA).
Sestroretsk can be called as the cycling capital city of the North-West of Russia. Hundreds of boys and girls of Kurortny district started their sport careers at the boarding school of the Olympic Reserve and Sestroretsk sport school. Sestroretsk coaches have grown up many Europe and World champions, among them there are Anton Shantyr, Viktor Kouzmin, Olga Zabelinskaya.
It has become a nice tradition to hold an annual festival of youth football for the Cup of Sestroretsk dedicated to the International Children’s Day. In 2017 it was carried out for the 11th time already. The wellknown to the citizens of Sestroretsk and for all fans of St. Petersburg “Zenith” Sergey Morozov — the son of legendary coach of blue-white-blue Yuri A. Morozov — supervised this tournament. The veterans of the football team “Zenith” were the guests of honor on the festival.
Other kinds of sport are developed in Sestroretsk as well. Every year many skiing, volleyball, wrestling, boxing, judo, chess competitions take place in our town. The residents are fond of athletics racing “Sestroretsk mile”. Both youth and veteran teams of Kurortny district take an active part in all football and hockey competitions. The popularity of floorball, well known in Scandinavian countries, grows too. Floorball team Sestroretsk Beavers has repeatedly become the winner of the city’s most prestigious and international tournaments. To popularize this sport Sestroretsk’s deputies have purchased sets of uniform and equipment for all schools in the town and held a number of events on championship of Sestroretsk.
The modern hall of classical wrestling was opened in the vocational school ¹120. The young sportsmen are coached here by Yuri Tsatouryan, who is famous for his World Champion title. Moreover, Yuri Tsatouryan is the Honour citizen of Sestroretsk.
The deputies of the Municipal Council of Sestroretsk take special care of disabled people teams and veterans’ teams. Veterans not only take an active part all sport events of the town, but also win the first prizes.
There are a lot of local organizations which are involved in the process of education, entertainment health care, working with all groups of population. Among them there are Children’s musical school ¹20, The Culture and Creativity Palace of Kurortny district, Hobby department of the complex centre for social service of population, House of children’s creativity “At the Sestra-river”, youth centre “Voskhod”. Every person can join these clubs and societies in order to improve their creative skills. Everybody can develop their interests in handicrafts, regional studies, music and singing.
Park “Little oaks”, founded by Peter the Great, has been transformed into the new entertaining center of Sestroretsk. A lot of festivals and celebrations are held here. The most important of them are The Foundation Day of Sestroretsk, Shrovetide, handicraft festival “Sestroretskoye podvorye”, youth events, and many others.