Russian national team coach Artem Istomine told that his group’s performance both at the Spartakiad of the Strongest and during the season as a whole can be considered a failure. Therefore, if he were the head of the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU), he would make changes in the coaching team.
Karim Khalili, Daniil Serokhvostov, Anastasia Goreeva, Natalya Gerbulova, Alina Kudisova, Ekaterina Noskova, Elizaveta Kaplina, Ksenia Dovgaya, Anastasia Zyryanova and Anastasia Grishina train in the Istomin group.
— Did the Spartakiad prove to be a failure for your group?
— Failed, 100%. This was predicted. We could not go to the mountains before the Spartakiad due to organizational problems. Thanks to the regions, we took Serohvostov and Khalili to the mountains, missing the Russian Cup in Izhevsk. Here you can see that Karim and Daniil were fine with their legs – they ran well. As for the rest of the group, we stayed in Izhevsk and prepared the Spartakiad there. With all this, they looked good with their feet, considering that other athletes came from height. But in shooting, they lost, basically, everywhere: both in pursuit and in sprinting, there could have been medals, but somewhere an accurate shot was not enough.
— Do you think there could be any coaching changes at the end of this season?
– Of course they can be.
– Are you ready for this?
— I will say this: if I were in a leadership position, I would definitely change it. I don’t know what they’re going to do, we haven’t discussed it, but I think our performance was a failure. It is clear that there were organizational problems, because it was not possible to organize training camps at altitude. During shooting training, we cannot work together (with Vitaly Noritsyn) with ten athletes – well, that’s ridiculous. Another group has three coaches for eight athletes. But as it is, such is the case. I am ready to face the possibility of change.
— If you were a manager, would you fire yourself? Such a message?
— I think the national team should not play like that. I understand that the season is a failure. First of all, as a senior coach I am responsible for all of this.
— For the rest of the season, do you just need to have fun on stage? Or do you want to prove something else?
— This is not to prove it, but the Russian Championship is also an important start towards which we must lead the athletes. We will try to do it, then we will talk about our future plans,” Istomin told .
From February 10 to 18, biathlon competitions as part of the Spartakiad of the Strongest took place in Zlatoust, Chelyabinsk region.
Source : MatchTV
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