The men’s handball national team of Russia started preparing for the matches with the national team of Belarus on January, 2 in Novogorsk. The matches will be held on January 6 and 7 in the Dynamo Sports Palace in Moscow. Handballfast discussed the upcoming Friendship Games and a course on rejuvenation of the squad with the head coach of the national team Lev Voronin.
— The players came to Novogorsk already in the evening of the 1 January. All the 18 called players are in line, — Lev Gennadyevich told Handballfast. — We conducted testing next morning. Overall, guys are in good shape.
— You complained before the tournament in Mogilev in November that the team had only three days to prepare. Now the training session will last four days. But there will be no matches with the youth teams which could be useful to test out in practice what had been learned during workouts. Do you have enough time to work?
— Of course, we don’t have much time, but we assume what we have.
— The national team worked with attack and two options of defense last training session. What will be the focus of the session this time?
— All the same. It makes no sense to invent something new. The learned material should be consolidated. And we’ll pay attention to the moments that were unsuccessful in November.
— There are two newcomers in the squad — a 19-year-old left back from HC Chekhovskie Medvedi Ivan Shelmenko and a 18-year-old right wing Ivan Erkanov from Moscow School of the Olympic Reserve 2-Academia. Have you been watching this player for a long time?
— I drew attention to him in the youth national team. I watched the matches of the Higher League involving him against Skif Omsk and Zilant Kazan. Erkanov was the leader in his team. Physical shape is important to the wing player, and Ivan is in good shape. So, he is a guy with potential.
— Our squad underwent a minimum of changes in comparison with November. Does it mean that the core of the team is defined for the future?
— Yes. We have experienced players in the team, but there are no older ones. The youth is already playing in the main squads of the clubs.
- It's noteworthy that Belarus comes with the main line-up. Only injured Julian Hiryk and Artur Rud will be absent, but there are 8 players from the Russian championship even without them and also 7 legionnaires from abroad. At the same time the national team of Russia is in its updated version. Did you raise the issue during negotiations with your partners of feasibility to play with rejuvenated squad on both sides?
- No. Everyone pursues their own goals. As I've mentioned several times before, we are building a team toward the future.
- At the same time Anton Aksyukov and Kirill Akramov from Chekhovskie Medvedi don't enter the court in the starting seven, while Ivan Shelmenko often started the matches from the first minutes since he replaced injured Evgeniy Dzemin.
- But the young players will take a confident position in the clubs, in the national team, even emerge as leaders of their teams in the nearest future. It’s irreversible story. There are many young players in foreign national teams. It’s necessary to renew the squad.
— Will Aleksandr Ermakov be the captain of the team, like in Mogilev?
— Yes.
The national team of Russia for Friendship Games:
gk — Denis Zabolotin (Meshkov Brest), Dmitriy Koryakin (Dinamo, Astrakhan), Ivan Sharov (Dinamo-Sungul);
lw — Dmitriy Ionov, Egor Kochura (both from CSKA);
p — Aleksandr Ermakov, Victor Furtsev (both from Chekhovskie Medvredi), Nikita Kashnikov (SKIF), Roman Tsarapkin (CSKA);
rw — Ivan Erkanov (Academia), Anatoliy Filippov (SGAU-Saratov);
lb — Kirill Akramov, Ivan Shelmenko (both from Chekhovskie Medvedi), Ilya Belevtsov (CSKA);
cb — Aleksandr Arkatov (Dinamo-Sungul), Saveliy Shalabanov (SKIF);
rb — Anton Aksyukov (Chekhovskie Medvedi), Dmitriy Kiselev (Zenit).
Friendship Games-2025:
6 January
Russia U-17 — Belarus U-17 — 14.00 (Moscow time)
Russia 0 Belarus — 16.30
7 January
Russia — Belarus — 14.30
Russia U-17 — Belarus U-17 — 17.30
Photo: the HFR press
