YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The sports schools of Armenia opened their doors before pupils on September 1st. NT correspondent was informed by Samson Hakobian, the head of the Unit for Organizing Work on the Training of Young Sport Generation, that there are 165 sports schools in Armenia, including 49 in Yerevan, with a total of 1,814 coaches (729 in Yerevan). Out of 43,471 sportsmen and sportswomen engaged in 43 kinds of sports, 17,212 ones live in Yerevan. 56 out of 927 Armenian communities have sports schools. Among the most popular sport kinds are wrestling (7,452 sportsmen), football (5,631), boxing (3,314), weightlifting (2,599) and judo (2,169). In 2001-2007, 52 gyms, 2 athletic maneges, a stadium, 3 shooting-grounds, as well as swimming-pools, educational and dormitory buildings of 38 sports schools, 2 colleges and other sports organizations were constructed and repaired with funds of the Social Fund, the state budget and "Hayastan" All-Armenian Fund. The average salary of coaches is 33 thousand drams, the salary of those with a seniority of over 20 years makes 42 thousand drams (about 140 USD). More than 12,000 sportsmen and sportswomen were engaged in athletics in the early 1990s. Today their number has declined to 2,411. Not to mention a small number of those engaged in games such as basketball (3,419), volleyball (1,549) and handball (880).

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