The Russian Cross-Country team around Olympic champion Alexander Legkov has grown larger.

After the meeting with the re-elected Russian Cross-Country Association president Elena Välbe, who cleared the organisational aspects, the composition of the team was announced.

The coaching staff of Reto Burgermeister and Isabel Knauthe will lead the five man team. Joining Alexander Legkov is Evgeniy Belov, Sergey Ustiugov, Gleb Retivikh and Stanislav Volzhentsev. Former team member Ilya Chernousov has decided to prepare for the upcoming season independently.

“I am happy, some of the biggest Cross-Country Skiing talents trust us and I feel privileged to have a chance to work with them and lead them on their way to success,” said Knauthe to FIS Cross-Country News.

The new team has already carried out two training camps spending a week in Magglingen (SUI) for performance tests and five days at high altitude at Passo Stelvio. In June, the team will train for the first time at full strength as Stanislav Volzhentsev will join the team after his wife gives birth to their child. For fourteen days in July Legkov and Co. will train in Oberwiesenthal, GER.

Source: the official FIS site