One of the highlights of this year’s European Championships in Alanya was the hundreds of friendly, hard-working volunteers who contributed magnificently behind the scenes and around the course to a wonderful competition.

As part of the EU Youth Project, the municipality of Alanya utilised 150 volunteers from 13 countries into the build up and organisation of the Championships, from 20th May to 20th June.

Volunteers from Turkey, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Estonia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Spain and Bulgaria participated in workshops and training sessions on culture, group work, learning new skills and of course, triathlon.

Within this project, 14 volunteers were involved in “Sport Volunteers Meet Where the Sun Smiles”, the title of the Alanya municipality project and the volunteers took an active role during the European Championships with the organisation and maintenance of the Info-Desk Area, Registration Area, Media Area, VIP, Transition Area, Award Ceremony and Closing Party, as well as supporting Paratriathlon athletes before and after their Championships.

Mehmet Zafer Peker said: “The key aims of the Alanya Municipality was to foster active participation and also promote young people to live a healthy lifestyle and good behaviour through sporting events

“In this way our project hosted an intercultural variety, while bringing together youngsters from different culture, ethnic and religion.”

The ETU would like to thank all of the volunteers for their hard work, enthusiasm and support for the competition.