Russia volleyball coach dies at 43

Sergei Ovchinnikov, the head coach of Russia’s national women’s volleyball squad, has died suddenly at the age of 43, local media reported Wednesday. Reports said that Ovchinnikov, who was also head coach of Moscow Dynamo women’s volleyball squad, died at his club’s training camp in the Croatian town of Porec. “We do not know any details. For the moment I can only confirm the fact of Ovchinnikov’s death,” the president of Russia’s volleyball federation Alexander Yaremenko told the press. Croatian media reports claimed that police there were investigating the death, with internet portal www.24sata.hr saying that he was found hanged in his Porec hotel room. The website quoted local police, who confirmed the death of a foreign visitor in a hotel in the town, although nobody from the hotel itself made any comment. Ovchinnikov, who took over Russia’s national squad in October 2011, led his team to the 2012 Olympic Games quarters where they were beaten by eventual champions Brazil.