Bears ride the Russian Wave

A big surprise followed by a big depression: In the end of May 2010 the Russian champion Chekhovskie Medvedi sensationally reached the EHF FINAL4 in Cologne and finished fourth after two defeats against Barcelona and Ciudad Real.

Then in the middle of June the Russian national team – almost identical to Medvedi – failed to qualify for the World Championship 2011 in Sweden. Russia will miss the WC for the first time since 50 years by failing against Romania.

For coaching legend Vladimir Maximov it has always been a balancing act between those two teams – as he is Mr. Handball in Russia and responsible for everything.

His name stands for success – but after missing the World Championship he was criticized. Now Maximov and his team squad, "The Chekhov Bears", are trying to pull this thorn out of the Russian soul by succeeding in the EHF Men’s Champions League.

The squad from the Moscow region has remained almost the same for the upcoming season after Chekhov won their ninth consecutive title in the Russian league. Three players, Roman Ivanov, Alexander Kashirin and Kirill Morozov left the Bears while three new players, Siarhei Harbok, Dmitry Zhitnikov and Maxim Zenkovich joined. Zenkovich is the first ever player from the city of Chekhov to play for the team of Chekhov, the successor of ZSKA Moscow.

The most interesting new player is Harbok who has been playing several years for international top clubs. Coming from RK Celje he spent the last three years at the German former EHF Champions League semi-finalist Rhein-Neckar Löwen.

Harbok is the second Belarusian player from the Löwen to go to Chekhov, following Sergey Shelmenko’s transfer last year. With this duo the back court the Russians now have two strong alternatives to their tall and powerful players like Alexej Rastvortsev and Alexej Kamanin.

For coach Maximov the strategy has remained the same since he came to Chekhov: Bringing the best Russian players to this team, strengthen them for club level and for the national team.

But competitors in Russia have grown stronger, especially the newly formed team of St. Petersburg, coached by former Russian pivot legend Dmitry Torgowanow. So the situation for Maximov and Chekhov isn’t getting easier – beside the fact that the qualification for the EHF FINAL4 meant the first semi-final including a Russian team since the start of the EHF Champions League in 1993.

Maximov’s view into the future of Russian handball isn’t that bright: "No one kept their promises to help Russian handball. In the last ten years only four new venues have been built, including the one in Chekhov. In some venues rain is dripping through the roof. Things aren’t running good for handball in Russia."

There are no plans to change Maximov’s strategy to play only with Russian or Belarusian players: "Look at ice hockey: They brought players from the Czech Republic to Russia, who play for our teams now . And at the World Championship final the Czech Republic beat us, as we made them stronger and stronger. This shall not happen in handball."

Like in the years before the "Chekhov Bears" had a long and intense European tour as preparation for the upcoming season. They played tournaments in Germany (winner of the "Pfalz-Cup"), France (ranked third at the high class Eurotournoi) and Serbia (defeated 25:39 by Ciudad Real in the final of the tournament in Doboj).

Additionally the Russians played various friendly matches against teams like Montpellier, Sarajevo, Skopje, Zagreb or Ciudad Real.

Chekhov also participated at a tournament in Kiev (Ukraine) and will be in action at a tournament in Veszprem (Hungary) over the upcoming weekend to prepare for the next EHF Champions League season.

In their EHF Champions League group with opponents like Schaffhausen, Szeged, Aalborg or Valladolid the Russians are to be named as favourite, as their team has the biggest experience.

Key facts

Newcomers: Siarhei Harbok (from Rhein Neckar Löwen), Dmitry Zhitnikov, Maxim Zenkovich (both from Chekhov’s farm team FC RGUFK)

Left the club: Roman Ivanov, Alexander Kashirin, Kirill Morozov

Coach: Vladimir Maximov (RUS, since 2001)

Club records

Nine times consecutive Russian Champion and Russian Cup Winner 2002-2010, EHF Champions League semi finalist 2010, Cup Winners Cup winner 2006

Find more info here.