Portal “Delfi.lv” and the sports editorial of Latvian Television (LTV) announced earlier that as a result of the conflict between the federation and Chakar, the coach was not issued accreditation for international competitions. Renārs Birkentāls, Annie Keita Sabule and Rūdis Balodis trained in the National Armed Forces (NBS) sports club under the supervision of Chakar, who thus did not have the opportunity to compete in the international circuit at the beginning of the season.
In an interview with LTV, Sakniņš revealed that Čakars had violated issues related to ethics, but did not disclose the reasons for his non-accreditation, just as the reason for this LBF step was also publicly clarified by the coach himself. As a result of the conflict, NBS will not continue its biathlon program, which is why Birkentāls, Sabule and Balodis have gone under the wing of the National Guard, reports the portal “Delfi.lv”.
Chakars explained in an interview to LTV that he would be ready to sit down at the same table with the biathlon federation and talk about resolving the conflict, but Sakniņš told LETA agency that the federation had exhausted all options: “If we had been ready to do that, we would have given in to the NBS call in advance and leave Māri as the coach. We have talked about it several times and weighed it up, so we will not continue cooperation with Māri. We offered our solutions, but the NBS sports club did not find them acceptable. At the moment, we do not see the possibility of cooperating with Māri in any way. We have chosen to go another way.”
LBF is looking for opportunities so that Birkenthals, Sabule and Balodis do not remain completely without support, because they lost their monthly salary when they left the army sports club. Birkentāls is part of the “silver” team of the Latvian Olympic Team (LOV), and Sabule and Balodis are part of the “bronze” team, but LOV only provides support in the field of sports medicine, recovery and rehabilitation.
Prospective junior Birkenthal is scheduled to play his first World Cup race of the season this week. Besides him, Andrejs Rastorgujevs, Baiba Bendika, Sanita Buliņa, Aleksandrs Patrijuks and Sandra Buliņa will also compete in Poklūka, thus Latvia will participate in both mixed relays on weekends. On the other hand, two more biathletes could join the Latvian team next week in Rūpolding, so that the Latvians could participate in relays for men and women, where four athletes are needed in each team.
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