"It would not have happened without the athletes," Kadyrov continued.

"Thank you to everyone who came and helped with the organisation at every stage. Special thanks to the volunteers. 

"These were real emotions, Russia loves sports, Russia loves friends."

The host nation dominated competition at the event which ran for 13 days and included entries from individual universities rather than national teams from 36 nations.

Team taekwondo brought sporting competitions to a close with two Russian universities contesting gold in both finals.

The Ural State University beat Lesgaft National State University from St Petersburg in the women's final.

"All our team is thrilled about this result, the fact that we were fighting in the finals against the team from St. Petersburg is a sign that the competition is very tough in Russia,” Ekaterina Shorokhova of the Ural State University told organisers.

In the men's competition the Russian Sports University defeated the Ural State University in another all-Russian contest.

The theme of Russian success was demonstrated in rhythmic gymnastics where Anna Batasova, Ekaterina Gainullina, Angelina Gildt, Alena Kapralova, Karina Metelkova, and Alisa Tishchenko from Lesgaft won gold in both group exercises with five hoops and in the three ribbons and two balls competition.

Anastasiia Guzenkova from the same university took individual gold in the hoop and her university team mate Daria Pridannikova won gold with the ball.

Meanwhile Arina Tkachuk, a student at Kuban University in Krasnodar, took gold in both clubs and ribbon.

"I really like this competition. You can feel the fans’ support, it gives you a lot of energy," Tkachuk said.

Russia were equally dominant in tennis.

Elena Pridankina, a student at the Russian Sports University, who has already played on the Women's Tennis Association circuit at only 18, beat her compatriot Ekaterina Maklakova 6-1, 6-4 in the women's singles.

The men’s singles was another all-Russian affair in which the gold medal went to Egor Agafonov, who beat Evgeni Filippov also in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.

Aganov collected a further gold in men’s doubles with Dmitrii Dolzhenkov.

The majority of medals in swimming went to Russia.

Ivan Girev of the Moscow State Academy of Physical Education won the blue riband men's 100m freestyle.

"This medal is significant, because I have won it for my university, and it will be a part of its history," Girev declared.

The women's 100m freestyle was won by Varsenik Manucharyan of Armenia.

"This medal is like an Olympic medal for me, because it is the most significant of all that I have won," Manucharyan insisted.

In women’s sambo there was even a hometown success to cheer because Olga Mikheeva, a student at Yekaterinburg University, won gold in the over 80 kilograms class.

"It's been a worthy competition," Mikheeva said.

"I prepare for every competition for a long time. And these competitions are quite significant, both for me and for my institute."

In table tennis there was little surprise that the women’s final was an all Chinese affair and even the same universities were involved as Rensijia Li defeated Ruonan Li.  

Both are from the China University Of Political Science And Law.

Competitors from 21 nations won medals at the festival, which was organised across 14 sports.

It was claimed that some 4,000 students had taken part.

The Games were organised after Yekaterinburg was stripped of hosting rights for the 2023 International University Sports Federation Summer World University Games as a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.