The Slovenian second-largest city of Maribor has won its bid for the 2013 Winter Universiade following the confirmation of its candidacy, media reports said on Sunday.

"Maribor has not won because it was the only candidate, but because it was well prepared. Even if there were ten candidates here today, Maribor would still have won," said George Killian, president of the University Sports Federation (FISU), which confirmed Maribor's candidacy on Saturday.

Slovenian Education Minister Milan Zver, who defended Maribor's bid in Brussels, said after the vote that "Slovenia would do its best," the Slovenian news agency STA reported.

Maribor will host the biggest students' sports event together with Russia's Kazan, which won the 2013 Summer Universiade against South Korea and Spain.

This will be one of the biggest events in Maribor, said its mayor Franc Kangler.

"We will begin work already in June. We're expecting around 6,000 guests, and that will be a great opportunity for tourism," he said.

To prepare for the event, Maribor plans to earmark around 250 million euros (some 388 million U.S. dollars) for new sports and accommodation facilities. The new facilities will be financed from European funds, national and city budgets and private sources.

Maribor, which also hosts the Golden Fox world cup skiing competition, vied to host a Winter Universiade before, but its bid was defeated by Turkey's Erzurum in 2007.

(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2008)