TEHRAN – Russia sitting volleyball head coach Alexander Ovsyannikov is happy with holding joint practices with Iran in Tehran.

The Russian team are preparing for the 2019 ParaVolley Europe Sitting Volleyball Zone Championships, slated for July in Budapest, Hungary.

The competition’s winners will earn the quota place for the 2020 Paralympic Games.

“Iran’s sitting volleyball team are the world’s best team. It’s very important for us to hold a joint practice with Iran. The joint training camp with Iran will improve us ahead of the Europe Sitting Volleyball Zone Championships,” Ovsyannikov said.

“We have already come to Iran and it has helped us to learn more. High-level Iran strengthen our team. We can recognize our weak points with holding training camp with the Iranian team,” he added.

“Iran are the favorites to win the title at the 2020 Tokyo and we will vie with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine and Brazil to become runners up,” the long-serving coach added.

Praising the Iranian players, Ovsyannikov said, “Iran take advantage of the good players, namely Davoud Alipourian and Ramezan Salehi. Morteza Mehrzad is also a physically strong outside hitter. We suffer lack of talented players in Russia. We have a domestic league with only seven teams,” the Russian coach stated.  

“It’s for the fifth time I travel to Iran. Iran is a beautiful country with tasty foods,” Ovsyannikov concluded.