Italian coach Gianni Postiglione has previously worked with national teams of Greece, Lithuania and South Africa ©Getty Images

World Rowing coaching director Gianni Postiglione has severed ties with the Russian national team following a ban on the country's athletes from international competitions due to the war in Ukraine.

Italian Postiglione is renowned as one of the world's leading rowing coaches, having been named as World Rowing Coach of the Year in 2006 and 2011.

He coached Greek rower Stefanos Ntouskos to a surprise men's singles sculls gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Postiglione and Lithuania's Mykolas Masilionis began coaching roles with the Russia Rowing Federation (FGSR) in November 2020.

However, FGSR President Alexei Svirin revealed that both coaches are no longer working with its athletes, although left open the possibility of them returning at a future date.

"Gianni Postiglione and Mykolas Masilionis stopped working with the Russian national team shortly after our athletes were banned from participating in international competitions," Svirin, a men's quadruple sculls gold medallist at Athens 2004, told Russian state news agency TASS.

"I think that their premature departure is a loss for us, we expected to continue cooperation with them in order to achieve more high result at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

"But our coaches managed to learn a lot from them, gained a lot of useful experience.

The Russian Olympic Committee won two rowing medals at Tokyo 2020, including silver for Hanna Prakhatsen in the women's single sculls ©Getty Images
The Russian Olympic Committee won two rowing medals at Tokyo 2020, including silver for Hanna Prakhatsen in the women's single sculls ©Getty Images

"I do not exclude that cooperation with these specialists can be resumed after sanctions are lifted from Russian sports."

Postiglione has previously worked with the national teams of Greece, Lithuania and South Africa, and is World Rowing's coaching director.

Competing under the "neutral" Russian Olympic Committee banner at Tokyo 2020 due to anti-doping sanctions, Hanna Prakatsen won women's singles sculls silver, a result matched by Vasilisa Stepanova and Elena Oriabinskaia in the women's pair.

That marked a return to the podium at the Olympics for the first time since Athens 2004 for Russian rowers.

However, athletes and officials from both Russia and Belarus have been banned from international competitions until further notice by World Rowing, in line with recommendations from the International Olympic Committee.

This followed the widely condemned Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

According to the United Nations, almost 4,000 civilians have been killed since the launch of what Moscow describes as a "special military operation", although it is feared the true figure could be far higher, and more than 6.6 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine.