Denes Kemeny quits as Hungarian coach

[Lambros10]

Successful Hungarian national team head coach Denes Kemeny has announced his departure from the team on Friday. After almost 16 years and three consecutive Olympic gold medals, one of the most successfull and longest serving coaches said goodby to 'his' team. To the Hungarian website vlv.hu, the first to report, Kemeny stated: ''After considering all the circumstances, I have decided not to continue my work as the coach of this team.'' On the question on his future, the 58-year old replied not to have though about it yet: ''I don't know and haven't really though about it. It's just nice to know that this decision was wisely taken.''



Denes Kemeny became head coach of the Hungarian men's national team in 1997 and opened up a new era starting with the European championship title in Sevilla, Spain in the same year already, followed by another European gold medal in '99 (Florence, Italy) and the first of three consecutive Olympic gold medals in 2000 in Sydney, Australia. Before that, the Hungarians had finished runners-up at the 1998 world championships in Perth, Australia falling short to Spain 6-4 in the final.

The Olympic dominance just continued in the following years with some big successes in the Olympic cycles as well. In 2003 Kemeny and his team rolled to the World championship title in Barcelona, Spain and took the gold medal twice in the FINA World League ('03 and '04), follewed by a second place finish in 2005.

Although collecting the gold medals faltered a little from that point on, the Hungarians were always in the top of the rankings as they lost a final of the World championships twice in a row: in 2005 in Montreal, Canada against Serbia & Montenegro and in 2007 in Melbourne, Australia versus Croatia. It was the consecutive third silver medal at a major event because Serbia proved too strong in the 2006 European championships final in Belgrade, Serbia as well.

But Kemeny guided his team to a strong 2008 Olympic tournament in which they battled to yet another gold medal beating the USA in the final 14-10.

Denes Kemeny was awarded Coach of the Year in his home country five times (1999, 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2008).