St Petersburg to bid for 2020 Olympics

Moscow, July 7 (UNI) Delhi has got a new rival in its proposed bid to host the 2020 Olympics with Russia's second largest city -- St Petersburg -- throwing hat in the ring.

Encouraged by IOC decision to hold the 2014 Winter Olympics at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, St Petersburg's Governor Valentina Matviyenko declared that the city would bid to host the 2020 extravaganza.

''We have no chance of hosting the 2016 games, as there is an order of continents,'' Matviyenko told RIA Novosti news agency.

''But we will definitely bid for the next (2020) Olympics and prepare infrastructure to definitely host the Olympic Games,'' she said.

St Petersburg was in the fray for hosting the 2004 Summer Olympics, but was not one of the five finalists and the games were subsequently held in Athens, Greece.

Matviyenko, however, admitted that Sochi's victory in the competition for hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics frustrated St Peterburg's plans to apply for the 2016 games.

UNI