Mikhail Prokhorov: New coaching staff will work for three years

The president of the Russian Biathletes’ Union (RBU) Mikhail Prokhorov spoke about the changes in the coaching staff of the Russian national team, about Svetlana Ishmuratova leaving the RBU and the new youth team coaches, as reported by Sports.ru’s Pavel Kopachev.

«The new coaching staff will be in charge of the team for three years. Vladimir Barnashov will only oversee children’s sport, relations with the Ministry of Sports and the FMBA (Federal Medical & Biological Agency). Speaking about Valery Polkhovsky’s appointment, I should say that people change and they need new challenges.»

«Last year’s experiment had some negative consequences. Individual preparation did not give proper results. Many people have switched over to the self-training regime, but they have been coming back to the team unprepared.»

«We will have two teams, team A and team B. Women’s team B will be headed by Andrey Russkikh, while Sergei Konovalov and Pavel Lantsov will be helping him. The men’s one will be headed by Nikolai Knyazev with Maksim Kugaevsky as his assistant.»

«Svetlana Ishmuratova was not present at the meeting of the RBU because of her official vacations. I did not receive any written request from her concerning her departure from the RBU management.»

«On May 3 to 4 we will hold a large meeting with coaches and Wolfgang Pichler is expected to come. Training programs for the teams are to be approved by two expert groups – from the RBU and the Ministry of Sports. The first training camp will begin on May 15.»

«Wolfgang Pichler will prepare our top 10 of the women’s rating. Pichler’s first words were: «Who is not ready to work hard, please, get up and leave.» As for Zaitseva’s performance in Sochi in 2014, there is no clarity still.»

«We have an idea of introducing an additional start before the World Cup, where we could perform an extra selection of the Russian sportsmen», – said Prokhorov.