The successor of Jochen Behle has been found: Frank Ullrich took over the position of Germany’s Cross-Country team head coach. 54-year old coach had been working as the head coach of German biathlon team until 2010.
Three weeks ago Jochen Behle stepped down from his position and his successor has been found right in time just before the raining season is about to start. “It was not an easy decision to make. I had a lot of fun in my previous appointment as the biathlon coach,” Ullrich said to www.xc-ski.de.
“On the other hand I am happy about the trust I have got and I am looking forward to working with my new team. I have very willingly and with full commitment accepted this new challenge. I am happy to have on my side so experienced and successful coaches such as Cuno Schreyl, Bernd Raupach, Stefan Dotzerl, Markus Kramer and Janko Neuber. Now we must work together to make necessary structural and training-methodological decisions to be able to carry on great successes of recent years. Changes certainly will not work overnight. But both on the ladies and on the men's sides, there are some athletes who can use their potential certainly a little better. This is what we are now working together," he added.
Frank Ullrich himself was a successful athlete. In 1980 he won gold medal at the Olympics in sprint and became nine times Biathlon World Champion. As the head coach of German biathlon team he brought his squads to four gold medals at the Olympics and numerous medals from World Championships. After his resignation he was looking after biathlon juniors. Already at the beginning of the last season he took over Axel Teichmann’s and Jens Filbrich’s training plans.
Contributed by www.xc-ski.de
