Valery Safronov passed away

On April 3, Valery Fyodorovich Safronov, a famous Russian SAMBO coach, deceased suddenly in the 62nd year of life. The International SAMBO Federation would like to express its deepest condolences to his family and close relatives. FIAS Journalist Pool by ITAR-TASS correspondent Veronika Sovetova 03.04.2012 18:15:15 SAMBO RUSSIA SPORT: SAMBO - RUSSIA - COACH SAFRONOV - DEATH Valery Safronov, the Merited SAMBO Coach of Russia who brought up more than a thousand athletes, died in Bryansk. MOSCOW, April 3 (ITAR-TASS correspondent Veronika Sovetova) Valery Safronov, the Merited SAMBO Coach of Russia who brought up several generations of Bryansk athletes, died in Bryansk in the 62nd year of life. During the period of his labor activity, he trained more than a thousand athletes, among them - more than 50 Sport Masters of the USSR and Russia. Among his students are Vitaly Minakov, Honored Master of Sports and a four-time SAMBO World Champion, and Dmitry Minakov, silver medalist of SAMBO World Cup. Safronov was rewarded with badges of honor, diplomas, certificates of merit, and awards of State Committee for Physical Education, Sports, and tourism of the USSR and Russia, and All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions for conscientious work and sports achievements of his students. "I started to work with Valery Vladimirovich 16 years ago" Vitaly Minakov told the ITAR-TASS correspondent. - "We had to go through the hard times together. He was a good coach in all respects: a psychologist and a teacher. I don't know what the cause of death was; presumably it was a heart failure… He took everything very much to heart, and was always nervous. Each start was a stress for him; in my career, there was a thousand of starts, and every time I saw how distressed he was for me. He was wholly given to sport". Vitaly Minakov told us that Safronov did not see his last victory at the World Cup in Vilnius: "But he phoned me all the time. Now, I am feeling so empty... Right now, I am starting to understand that it was him that I was fighting for! I wanted him to see his work in my results". To the question of the ITAR-TASS correspondent on who will now train Safronov's students, Vitaly Minakov answered: "I have a friend who trained with me and helped Safronov; his name is Vyacheslav Samsonov. I haven't talked to him yet and I don't know what his plans are. We'll see. But there's one thing I can say for sure: the boys will keep training. If there is nobody to work with them, I will do it. Life is life. We must move on and remember what our coach taught us".