Chicherova puzzled by coach's interview | 10.10.2012

Olympic high jump champion Ana Chicherova of Russia.

Olympic high jump champion, Anna Chicherova, has denied her relationship with her coach, Evgeniy Zagorulko, has deteriorated.

According to an interview in the Russian press Zagorulko claimed there is a lack of harmony between the two: "I have no idea what this means," Chicherova explained to Russia's AllSport online magazine. "We have not discussed this at all, so I really don't understand the interview."

The high water mark of coach and athlete's relationship came last year when Chicherova set a new Russian record by clearing 2.07 at the national championships. After that feat, Zagorulko is reported to have said: "Now I can die happy". The reason behind the elation was that a former Zagorulko pupil, Tamara Bykova, had held the Russian record of 2.05 for 20 years until Yelena Slesarenko (coach: Boris Gorkov) snatched it away in the Athens Olympics with 2.06.

And matters could hardly get better than this summer, when Zagorulko's charge went on to claim the Olympic title with a leap of 2.05 off the back of a winter season when she set her third national indoor record.

"I don't really know what to say," insisted Chicherova. "If the coach is tired of working with me, we somehow have to resolve the issue. In any coach and pupil relationship there are ups and downs. In any case, we have to discuss everything between ourselves, after that it will all be a lot clearer."

A date for that meeting has not yet been fixed, but in the meantime the athlete has been on holiday in Egypt. Russians still have to apply for a visa to visit Europe and that, according to Chicherova, was out of the question this time and the choice was between Turkey and Egypt.

And now to ease her well documented physical problems there are more travel plans: "I am about to head off to Israel to the Dead Sea for a mud cure," she said. "I have got to help my body rest. Then I shall gently embark on some physical preparation. As for the winter season, I would prefer to skip it so as to give my body time to repair itself. I regard the winter season as a time for recovery and rehabilitation. Everything is geared towards the 2013 summer season."

In 2013, the IAAF World Championships will take place in Moscow.