Belarus passes baton of CIS Games to Azerbaijan

CIS Secretary General Sergei Lebedev declared the II CIS Games closed.

"Despite any sanctions, barriers, sport, peace and friendship reigned in Belarus for ten days. The fact that not only our friends from the Commonwealth [of Independent States] but also athletes from 13 non-CIS countries came to Belarus to take part in the second CIS Games clearly and convincingly shows that there are no and cannot be borders between states in sports, there are no and there should be no politics and discrimination. The past competitions have once again demonstrated that in real sport there is only a fair fight, equality and a truly festive mood," TASS quotes Lebedev as saying.

The CIS flag was solemnly handed over to the organizing committee of the Games to be held in 2025 in Azerbaijan. Belarus Deputy Prime Minister Igor Petrishenko and Azerbaijan’s Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev took part in the handover of the official flag of the Games.

The Russian team took first place in the overall medal standings, winning 149 gold, 89 silver and 50 bronze medals. The second place was taken by the Belarus team (48-78-110), the third by Uzbekistan (28-25-52).

The II CIS Games were held in 11 cities of Belarus in 20 sports. Over 2,000 athletes from Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, as well as 13 other countries invited to the competition as guests took part.