NEW DELHI: India’s athletics coach Belarussian Nikolai Snesarev passed away in his room at Patiala’s National Sports Institute (NIS) on Friday. He was 72.
He was appointed as a middle and long-distance coach till September by the Sports Ministry.
President of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) Adille J Sumariwalla confirmed the passing away of Snesarev.
“AFI is deeply shocked to learn about the sudden demise of the recently-appointed middle-long distance coach Dr. Nikolai Snesarev in Patiala,” said Sumariwalla.
“He had come to NIS (from his Bengaluru base) for the Indian Grand Prix 3 held today. But when he did not turn up for the meet, the coaches checked for him in the evening and his room was found locked from inside,” Sumariwalla said.
“When the door was broken, he was found lying on his bed. The Sports Authority of India doctor at the NIS declared him dead and the ED (team) of the SAI has referred the body to the government hospital for post mortem. We don’t know the cause of death. We will know it later after post mortem,” he added.
Snesarev was at the NIS running track in the morning with his wards but did not turn up for the meet which started at 2pm.
“He died with his boots on, having overseen his wards’ training this morning,” the AFI said in its tribute in a release issued later.
Snesarev was coaching 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable, who has qualified for the Olympics, and other middle and long-distance runners in their bid to qualify for the Tokyo Games.
He had quit from the position in February 2019 after Sable opted to leave him and train under Army coach Amrish Kumar.
His contract then was till the end of the Olympics, postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.