Though they won the Olympic gold in Seoul together, in the same boat, it was hard for Nicolae Juravschi to convince Viktor Reneiski to train the national kayak-canoe team of Moldova. The negotiations with the sportsman from Belarus lasted for approximately three years, IPN reports.

“Nicolae contacted me about three years ago and offered me this post. It is a new stage in my personal development,” Viktor Reneiski told a news conference.

“It wasn’t easy at all, but it was a necessary step when we have such athletes as Tarnovschi, Nuta and Oprea. A professional approach is needed to train them so as to achieve better results,” said the president of the National Olympic Committee Nicolae Juravschi.

Viktor Reneiski will serve as coach not for the first time. Earlier, he trained athletes from Belarus, Croatia, and France. This summer, the double Olympic champion from Belarus helped the naturalized sportsmen Sergey and Oleg Tarnovski to medal at the World Seniors Championship, Reneiski forming part of the coaching staff. The Tarnovski brothers have represented Moldova since 2014. The youngest of them, Sergey, has won a number of medals, including gold at the Youth Olympic Games. Sergey Tarnovski has already qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics.