Days before, The Presidium of the All-Russian Volleyball Federation appointed Vadim Pankov as the head coach of the Russian women’s team. In an interview yesterday, the new head coach talked about how the team will be taken out of the crisis, what will be the composition of the team and whether his daughter Ekaterina Pankova will be included.
Pankov said the main task of the federation sets for him is to fight for the World Championship medals and reaching to the final. Pankov said he will put the game and view the candidates simultaneously in the national Superleague. He said: “the strongest players will go to the World Championship. Experiments in this case are unacceptable.”
About the composition of the team, Pankov claimed that it will be not much changes as the team in European Championship. He expressed: “We have excellent middle blockers and opposite spikers. I still want to have Natalia Goncharova and Tatiana Kosheleva playing. But we have problems with the reception. For the young players, I see the potential of Irina Voronkova and Ksenia Parubets. But I will also try the others.”
For the selection of the main setter, Pankov analysis the situation of the team now: “Indeed, pass to Ksenia Parubets needs faster. But who exactly will be the main setter, I can not say. As candidates I will consider Evgenia Startseva, Marina Babeshina, Tatiana Romanova and Daria Ryseva. For Romanov and Ryseva, we need to watch how they perform till the end of the championship. Romanov has little to do with Nikolay Karpol. I also consider my daughter Ekaterina Pankova as a candidate, but she has certain health problems. I will not go into details. Healthy Pankova will compete for a place in the team. But it is unequivocally sure that Irina Filishtinskaya will not be in the national team.”
At the end, Pankov emphasised that only the strongest player will be selected, no matter her age or experience. He said: am. According to statistics, by nature, by psychology.”
Source: Championat
