Emma Raducanu’s former coach Dmitry Tursunov says he left because of ‘red flags’
Emma Raducanu’s former coach Dmitry Tursunov says he left Romania because of’red flags’ in her behaviour.
MILO BOROIUL
In a series of Instagram videos, Ms Raducanu shared her thoughts about her time with the team. She was also seen wearing the same shorts and top for her final training session on Tuesday.
Dmitry Tursunov, a former national team coach, took to Instagram to talk about what went wrong when she decided to leave the team, following a sexual assault accusation.
He said he had doubts because there were red flags in her behaviour.
“The problem was that there were some red flags of Emma’s behaviour, which became apparent during the time I coached her,” Mr Tursunov wrote. “And it was not in a positive way.
“She has a way of being very nice, she likes to have a friendly face… but at the same time being very negative and critical. This is not how a professional athlete is supposed to behave. I saw Emma’s behaviour for the first time in February of 2012, when it was during the European Championship that she was my assistant coach.
“She behaved very well in the games against Italy & France which I had to coach her. She helped me a lot during the practices and we worked well together.
“She also had a very good attitude when I had to coach her against Israel in the World Championship on July 12, 2012. It was my first time having such a big team in front of me, and she was very good and worked well in the games.
“But after we had to play against the team of the current coach, the same group of coaches that had beaten the team of my previous coach on June 18, 2012. We lost 6-0.”
He said it was the time when Emma was at her worst, but claimed he had not been