Russia keep their options open

While Norway have just announced their squad for the EHF EURO 2012 in Serbia, the Russian national team have just confirmed the provisional squad for the forthcoming training camp in the Moscow region.

New head coach Vitaly Krokhin would like to invite some experienced players who were ignored by his predecessor Evgeny Trefilov.

For example, a playmaker with French club Metz, Ekaterina Andryushina is going to come, but triple world champion and ever present Russian goalkeeper Inna Suslina is likely to miss the major tournament.

“She had a minor operation on her knee and she has a strong desire to help the national team. But I am afraid she has not got enough time to recover.

“Suslina still has a chance to be part of the team for the final week of our preparation,” explained Krokhin after his conversation with the Vardar Skopje keeper.

Another Russian triple world champion, Emilia Turey, has permanent problems with her shoulder, but has been playing for her club Astrakhanochka, and dealing with the pain.

Turey is another real doubt for the national team training camp that will start on November the 19th

Ekaterina Vetkova, pivot with Romanian club Oltchim has been excluded from the squad, with Vitaly Krokhin seeing no reason to have her in the current team.

“Vetkova is not stronger than all of the pivots playing in Russian Superliga.

“She does not have enough time on court, because there is too much competition in her club.”

Krokhin wants be in touch with the younger age groups and he intends to take a look at some of the new faces in Russian handball.

The U-20 national team will have a training camp on the same dates, and along with 17 year-old Anna Vyakhireva, who has shown world class performances in the Women’s EHF Champions League games, the Russian coach wants to give Polina Vedekhina, Ekaterina Chernova and some other young girls the experience of training with the senior team.

Russia will take part in the Tourchin Cup in Kiev, Ukraine on 22-25 November, where Krokhin's team will play against Holland and Czech Republic as well as a friendly game with the hosts Ukraine inbetween.

After coming home, the Russians will have another week of training. The coaching staff intends to organize one more friendly game, apparently with one of the Russian club teams.



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The provisional list of 20 players for a short training camp 19-22 November:

Goalkeepers – Maria Sidorova, Victoria Kalinina(both - Zvezda), Maria Basarab(Lada)

Wing players – Polina Kuznetsova, Yana Uskova(both – Zvezda), Elena Avdekova(Dinamo), Olga Chernoivanenko(Lada), Marina Yartseva(Rostov-Don)

Line players – Ksenia Makeeva, Alexandra Stepanova(both – Dinamo), Maya Petrova(Rostov-Don)

Back court players – Tatiana Khmyrova(Dinamo), Ekaterina Andryushina(Metz), Lyudmila Postnova, Anna Vyakhireva(both – Zvezda), Ekaterina Ilyina, Anna Pun'ko(both – Kuban), Ekaterina Davydenko, Victoria Zhilinskaite(both – Lada), Anna Sen'(Rostov-Don)