MOSCOW, December 24 (R-Sport) – Olympic silver medalist bobsledder Alexander Zubkov has hailed the impact of new Canadian coach Pierre Lueders, in comments to R-Sport.
Lueders took over as coach this season with the target of making Russia's bobsled crews competitive at the country's first Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014.
“Lueders has a very professional approach to work,” said Zubkov, Russia's top bobsledder.
“It is very comfortable for me to work with Pierre. From the very beginning, I sat and discussed everything with him. Now we understand each other almost without words.”
Lueders’ work is already visible as the Russian four-man crew led by Zubkov, who took the silver at the 2006 Turin Games and bronze in Vancouver, has won four out of five World Cup stages this season.
“We didn’t expect that we would beat everybody so easily and we were ready for a very difficult struggle,” Zubkov said. “But frankly speaking, the opponents haven’t yet made any surprises for us.”
The 38 year old added that he would aim for two medals at the world championships at St. Moritz in January.
Lueders won gold for Canada in the two-man at Nagano 1998 and silver in the same event in Salt Lake City two years later, and has eight world championship medals in the two- and four-man disciplines.
