"We are shocked": Russia reacted to the escape of female athletes to the Syrian national team

Senior coach of the Russian national cycling team Sergei Kovpanets is shocked that the team members Tatiana and Daria Malkovas will perform at the Pan-Arab Games in Algeria. Athletes have changed their names, and one of the sisters even changed the date of birth and will perform for Syria.

In a comment to Sports.ru, Kovpanets accused the cyclists of grossly violating the rules of changing sports citizenship and national federation. He added that he could not contact the athletes and called their escape from Russia a gamble.

"We ourselves are shocked by this information and are now trying to find out what happened. How the Malkova sisters ended up in Syria, and moreover with a distorted version of the last name and date of birth - I have no idea. In June they were competing at the Russian Championships. We tried to get in touch with them, but neither the athletes nor their coach father got in touch. It is clear that we are talking about a friendly country, but that's no way to make a transfer. It's some kind of a gamble," said the coach of the Russians.

Note that the Pan Arab Games are organized by the Union of Arab National Olympic Committees and this is not a tournament where you can ignore the rules of citizenship change specified by international federations.

As reported by OBOZREVATEL, Russian figure skating coach Alexei Zheleznyakov became furious about the conditions of admission of athletes from Russia with the words "they spit on our heads".

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