International contest of A.S.Makarenko (Makarenko was great Russian teacher and writer) for educational institutions, which each year takes place in a different city, is starting in Sochi on April 1st, and will bring together student teams from 40 Russian regions. During the event, Russia’s biggest publishers will present new educational literature. Guest list includes famous Russian academicians, doctors, and professors. Also, official from Italian embassy in Russia, Emiliano Mettini, will talk about education experiences in Italy.

Here are some photos from the Nike Free Mountain 2007 skiing and snowboarding competition that took place in Krasnaya Polyana, Sochi on March 1-3.

See more larger pictures: »

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The finals of the international Missis World 2007 pageant took place tonight in «Zimny» Theater in Sochi, Russia. And here are the results!

Missis World 2007: Mrs. America – Diane Tucker
Missis Benevolence: Mrs. Canada – Mai-Lea Dejong
Missis Fitness: Mrs. Russia – Maria Gufronova
Best Dress: Mrs. France – Rejane Klein Maurer

Video 

I found three video clips on different Russian news sites. All three are different, some are from before the event, some are videos of the event itself. But they all have Russian narration. If you want to see the picture, here’s the list with instructions. Also, below I’m posting a few screenshots from two of those clips. Tip: if the playback is faster then the download and the video is jerking, press pause button after playback begun, and give it a little time to buffer data up; then press play button again to watch the video.

Screnshots

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These are just photos from the Mrs World website, they are not from Zimny Theater. If I find photos from the event in Sochi I’ll post ’em here too. Update: event photos and links to videos in the new post.

Missis World 2007

Mrs. America – Diane Tucker

Missis Benevolence

Mrs. Canada – Mai-Lea Dejong

Missis Fitness

Mrs. Russia – Maria Gufronova

Best dress

Mrs. France – Rejane Klein Maurer

Photos (c) MrsWorld.com

The first part of Missis World contest was actually run last night in «Zhemchuzhyna» hotel. Out of thirty ladies that reached this stage only ten will compete in the final stage tomorrow in «Zimy» Theater. Their names are already known, but they are kept secret by the organizers.

The stage that ran last nigh included interview contest (called “Interview” :) and accounted for 50% of the score), and swimsuit (25% of the score) and evening dress (25% of the score) contests.

Here are three photos from sochi-news.ru

I also found decent photos from last year’s Missis Wold 2006 event held in St. Petersburg.

Russian Congress of Andrology and 3rd Congress of Professional Association of Russian Andrologists is scheduled in Sochi, Dagomys district on April 27-29. Official program, in Russian, can be found on Association’s official website.

The next biggest thing to hit Sochi after International Olympics Committee visit will be this year’s finals of the International beauty contest – Missis World 2007.

First thing’s first: the official website of the contest is www.mrsworld.com. This sorry excuse for the website is pretty useless, but it does have (low quality) pictures of all ladies, so check ’em out and let me know who you think should win the contest! :) I personally like Yulia Ogrokhyna of Ukraine :-D

The date of the event is March 8 – the International Women’s Day. Until then, ladies, who are currently in Sochi, are Read the rest of this entry »

Nike Free Mountain 2007 competition will be in Krasnaya Polyana from March 1st to March 3rd. Program includes freeride and jibbing (sub-style of freestyle that uses obstacles such as trees, stumps, rails, etc.) competitions, and will gather around 200 skiers and snowboarders from Russia. Prize fund is $15 000 US.
 
Source: sport-express.ru

Nike regularly sponsors other sport and adventure competitions in Sochi in spring and summer.

World culture festival «Etno-Sochi» will take place in Sochi, on the square in front of city administration, on February 22nd. Participants from Africa, India, Latin America, and Caucasus will perform their national music, and dances, treat visitors with national food and drinks, and teach them how to play their national musical instruments. The culmination of the festival will be etno-parade, and will end with “fire-show”.

Sounds fun! :)

As I previously wrote, on March 8 (International Women’s Day) Sochi will host Missis of the World contest. New details about prizes were recently unveiled. As reported by “Komsomolskaya Pravda – Kuban” newspaper, the five finalists will receive prizes worth no less then US $10 000, and the winner will receive a crown with diamonds worth US $50 000. In addition to that, Missis of the World will receive other prizes; however organizers are keeping what they are a secret for now.

February 8 – 10 Sochi, once again, will welcome the Winter Music Conference (SWMC-2007), the goal of which is to help several hundreds of Club Music professionals from Russia and neighbouring countries to establish new business contacts and discuss popular electronic and dance music trends.

The day-time program includes over 13 hours of presentations, discussions groups, and workshops on today’s hot topics of the night club and music industry. During night-time program, best night clubs and bars in Sochi, Adler, and Krasnaya Polyana will let Russia’s hottest DJs in to present their new programs.

Official website of SWMC is swmc.ru (in Russian)

Organizers of the Moscow International independent film festival “Supernova” are planning to move the festival, which takes place during summer, to Sochi. Sochi is already a home to one of the Russia’s biggest film festivals – “Kinotavr”.

In December 2006 some Sochi residents rallied against holding the Olympic Games in Sochi. The major concerns that they brought up were dense building constructions, ecological impact of the rapid development, and already overloaded transportation infrastructure, writes “Novaya Gazeta Kubani” newspaper.

December is not today, but this is recent, and still is of current importance. Read the rest of this entry »

The final stage of the Missis of World 2007 beauty contest will be held in Sochi’s Zimny Theater on March 8, 2007, reports RIA “Novosti”. Filming a promo movie about Sochi starring contest’s participants is also planned. The film will be televised in the USA, Europe, Asia, and northern Africa.

Missis of World 2007 beauty contest became international in 1990. Since that year its finals were held in Australia, Israel, Costa Rica, Hawaii (USA) (4 times), Las Vegas (USA) (3 times), India, and St. Petersburg (Russia).

I guess, its another way to promote the city in its Olympics bid journey. Which is totally cool with me – whatever brings more people to this beautiful city : )