19. Januar 2005  
Moscow, Seoul /Russia, Korea  
Artistic Gymnastics

Leonid Arkaev - Head Coach in Korea

Leonid Arkaev (RUS)

The American magazin International Gymnast repeated the words of former FIG president Yuri Titov, that the former Russian head coach Leonid Arkayev has accepted a position as head coach of the Korean gymnastics team.
Arkayev was the head coach of the URS and Russian men's team from 1973 to 1992, and from 1992 to 2004 he was the head coach for the Russian men's and women's team and president of the Russian Gymnastics Federation....
Arkaev was ousted from his top roles after a poor showing by the Russian teams at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, but is a member of the FIG Executive Committee.
South and North Korea will form one unified team at the 2006 Asian Games and 2008 Olympic Games.
Titov designated the change of Arkaev to Korea as a defeat of Russian gymnastics in a difficult situation of the national gymnastics federation, wich needs more support from sponsors and business partners.
Russian Gymnastics has a new President
'Gymnastics was always the pride of our country,' said Leonid Tyagachyov, president of the Russian Olympic Committee to the Russian sports agency «Стадион». 'Yuri Titov told me that they needed help and that he had a suggestion for a new president. I hope, that these changes will positively affect development of gymnastics in Russia.'
'I could not recruit any sponsors and I recognize this defeat,' Titov told sports agency «Стадион». 'Today many federations exist only because of sponsors and their support, and our sport is especially expensive, and without money from sponsors we simply cannot survive.'
'... Russian Gymnastics need 1 Million Dollars!
The new Russian gymnastics president is businessmen Yuri Dedukh, a native of Donetsk (UKR).
Dedukh manages several oil and gas companies operating in Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic states.
'The decision to nominate a new president did not come about spontaneously,' Dedukh said. 'I understand that in the beginning we have great expenses. According to my program, one million dollars will be allocated annually for the development and needs of sports gymnastics. This sum is necessary to restore our country's gymnastics to the proper level. The guarantee of this successful realization of the program to revive gymnastics is the development of children's sports. And the funds will be put there first of all.'
Source: «Стадион» & «IG online».