Russia’s women’s volleyball head coach commits suicide

Russia’s women’s national volleyball team head coach Sergei Ovchinnikov committed suicide, the squad’s former head coach Vladimir Kuzyutkin announced. But he did not know why the 43-year-old coach had decided to end his life.     

“It’s certainly a great folly to commit suicide. I extend my condolences. He was my friend, [and] colleague. No one had done anything bad to him. The team failed in the Olympics, but that’s not important. I don’t understand why he couldn’t cope,” rusnovosti.ru quotes Vladimir Kuzyutkin as saying.

As NEWS.am Sport informed earlier, Sergei Ovchinnikov died, All-Russian Volleyball Federation General Director Alexander Yaremenko informed. 

“So far nothing is clear, all I can do is confirm the fact that he has died. They called me from Dynamo Moscow [club, where he coached, too]. They are currently at a training camp in Croatia, and that is why the details are yet unclear,” Alexander Yaremenko had said.

To note, Sergei Ovchinnikov was the head coach of Russia’s women’s national volleyball team ever since 2011. His team finished as group leader at the London 2012 Summer Olympics, but it was defeated by Brazil in the first round of the playoffs.