Penza, 8 June 2017. PenzaNews. The Penza region failed to receive a subsidy from the federal budget for basic sports support in 2017. This was reported by the deputy Minister of Physical Culture and Sport of the Penza region Sergei Nikishin.

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"We observe annual decrease in the number of athletes at the stages of mastering sportsmanship and perfect mastery. In 2014, there were 640 athletes, in 2015 – 573 ones, in 2016 – 518 people. The same decrease is observed in basic sports as well, which is rather threatening," he said at the meeting of the department board that was held at the premises of the school of Olympic reserve on Thursday, June 8.

According to Sergei Nikishin, it became one of the reasons why the region failed to get the subsidy.

He did not mention the sum of money the region lost but he reminded that in 2016 it equalled to 6,130,000 rubles.

Sergei Nikishin specified that the system of sports reserve preparation includes 27,245 athletes altogether.

"The initial stage of sports and recreation makes up 15.5% of the total number of athletes, the initial stage of preparation – 52.8%, the training stage – 29.8%, the stage of mastering sportsmanship – 1.5%, the stage of perfect mastery – 0.4%. Judging by the indicators, we can see that athletes seldom move up from the training stage to the stages of mastering sportsmanship and perfect mastery. This indicates a lack of effectiveness of the present system of selecting talented children and of the quality of sports reserve preparation," the deputy minister explained.

He also drew attention to the fact that the number of Penza residents who receive the titles of candidates for master of sport and master of sport also decreased.