Today, Volleyball Federation of Russia has finally announced the long overdue appointment of the head coach for women’s national team- Vadim Anatolyevich PANKOV, the coach of the VK “Zarachie-Odintsovo” (Moscow region). He previously supervised all the women’s reserve teams for the All-Russian Volleyball Federation and headed the student and youth teams. One of his main rivalries was Rishat Gilyazutdinov, the head coach of the VC “Dinamo-Kazan”.
Earlier, almost ten years ago, in September 2008, Pankov was serving as the acting head coach of the women’s national team. During the time, he helped the team successfully to qualify for the the World Grand Prix 2009 with a score of 4 wins – 1 loss in the European qualification tournament.
Under the leadership of Pankov, the women’s university students team of Russia won the World Student Games twice (2005, 2017).
The appointment is not a very surprising news to the industry while it sparks a wide speculation of the return of his daughter, Ekaterina Pankova, former setter and captain of the national team.
Pankova had been enlisted as a key player over the past fiver years while her capability was always questionable. Although she is a two-time European Champion, the national team failed to achieve satisfactory results in major international tournaments including the World Championship 2014, World Cup 2015, Olympic Game 2016, to name a few. After the Olympic debacle, she was dismissed by the former head coach Kuzyutkin last year (also resigned after the World Grand Prix 2017); as well as by Zoran Terzíc new head coach of Dinamo Moscow last year.
Photo: FIVB, Championat
