Other events in Baltic States

Despite contradicting rumors in recent days, Leonids Beresnevs has officially signed his contract to become the head coach of the Latvian national men's ice hockey team.

As Beresnevs confirmed to LETA, the veteran coach from Latvia has signed a deal until the end of the Olympic qualification tournament in September. If Latvia qualifies for the 2018 Winter Olympics, his contract will be extended another two years.

Earlier this week, the newspaper Diena reported that former Latvian national team assistant coach Tom Coolen had also signed a contract in January to become the next head coach of the Latvian team.

The 57-year-old Beresnevs has coached the national team twice before – from 1995 to 1999 and from 2004 to 2006.

He has been coaching Latvia's U-18 and U-20 national teams the past several years.

In the past, Beresnevs has coached clubs in Latvia, Russia, Kazakshtan and Estonia.

As reported, the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation decided this past summer to not extend its contract with previous head coach Aleksandrs Belavskis.

LHF board concluded that Belavskis did not fulfill the task of finishing in the top ten at last year's Ice Hockey World Championships, thus the decision was made not to extend the coach's contract.