Emma Raducanu’s former coach Dmitry Tursunov says he left because of ‘red flags’ about the former Olympian.
Tursunov says Raducanu’s new coach, Alexei Tsiskaridis, informed him he was going to leave after the 2015 national team camp.
Tsiskaridis was manager of Belarus’s Under-17 squad until 2016, after which he took over a national women’s team, leading a total of 9,000 from age groups through youth and into the senior team.
He coached Raducanu, who is now coach of the Belarus U-22 team, from 2015 onwards.
According to Tursunov, the decision, taken early on in the season, came from Tsiskaridis. He says he was upset at Raducanu for suggesting she shouldn’t be playing in the national team in the World Championship group stage.
“The coach told me, before the national team camp, that the coach of the national team, of the national team that my daughter plays for, said that the national team that my daughter plays for had reached a crisis of the national team and that he didn’t want her to go through this experience in the World Championship.
“There were red flags about the team, the coach was talking with the coach, so I decided to leave,” Tursunov said.
Raducanu said her decision to leave the national team was not a shock:
“Of course I’m shocked. I never thought that I would have to abandon my team. It’s so unexpected. I’m happy that I don’t feel that I’m a bad player in the national team. I’m really happy and I’m proud that I have managed to give everything to the national team in two years, despite all the difficulties. I don’t understand why the national team is not playing well. I always think that the national team play good games.”
She told R-Sport last year: “My dream is to
