Athletics-Borzakovskiy set to become Russia head coach

Reuters

By Dmitriy Rogovitskiy MOSCOW, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Former Olympic 800 metres champion Yury Borzakovskiy is set to become the new head coach of Russian athletics. "We recommended to the heads of the Sports Ministry and the national training centre that Yury Borzakovskiy should become the new head coach," Russian Athletics Federation president Valentin Balakhnichev told the All Sport agency. "His candidacy was supported so you can say Borzakovskiy will soon become Russia's athletics head coach." The former head coach, Valentin Maslakov, resigned on Jan. 23 because of the recent doping revelations involving his country's sportsmen and women. Aside from winning gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics, the 33-year-old Borzakovskiy was the 2001 world champion and a triple European champion. "Borzakovskiy has a great deal of experience, is very authoritative and has the desire to take up coaching," added Balakhnichev. (Editing by Tony Jimenez)