Penza, 30 September 2017. PenzaNews. Over 600 people from 70 regions of the Russian Federation and seven foreign countries – Armenia, Belarus, the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Serbia, and the Czech Republic – competed for awards of the IV Russian Pensioners’ Sports Games, which started in Penza on Saturday, September 30, in the morning.

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During the opening ceremony held on the previous evening at the Burtasy Sports Palace, a competitors' parade took place, during which team members walked with flags representing regions and countries the participants arrived from.

The festive atmosphere at the ceremony was created with the help of many creative teams that performed at the opening.

A surprise for the guests was a mascot of the All-Russian competitions in 2017 – a life-size owl puppet, which was considered to be a symbol of wisdom – that drove into the hall on a hoverboard.

The governor of the Penza region Ivan Belozertsev, the chairman of the Russian Union of Pensioners Valery Ryazanskiy, the Deputy Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Marina Tomilova and other officials were among distinguished guests who came to greet the participants.