Double Olympic 4x100m silver medallist Leonid Bartenev has died at the age of 88 ©RusAF

Double Olympic silver medallist Leonid Bartenev has died at the age of 88, it has been announced by the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF).

Bartenev was a member of the Soviet Union 4x100 metres relay teams that finished second at the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games in Melbourne and Rome, respectively.

Bartenev was born in Poltava in Ukraine and trained mostly in Kyiv before moving to Moscow.

At Melbourne 1956, he ran the first leg of the relay with team-mates Boris Tokarev, Yuriy Konovalov and Vladimir Sukharev as the Soviet Union finished second in a race won by the United States.

Four years later, in Rome, Bartenev was on the second leg alongside Gusman Kosanov, Konovalov and Edvin Ozolin as the Soviets again finished runners-up, this time behind the United Team of Germany.

Bartenev was also a member of the Soviet Union 4x100m relay team that won the bronze medals at the 1954 European Championships in Bern behind Hungary and Britain.

He won another bronze medal at the 1958 European Championships in Stockholm, an event won by West Germany with Britain second.

Bartenev’s personal best times for the 100m was 10.2sec and 20.9 for the 200m.

He won the Soviet Union Championships in the 100m in 1958 and the 200m in 1957 and 1959.

Leonid Bartenev enjoyed a successful coaching career after retiring as a sprinter and worked with the Soviet Union team at five consecutive Olympic Games ©RusAF
Leonid Bartenev enjoyed a successful coaching career after retiring as a sprinter and worked with the Soviet Union team at five consecutive Olympic Games ©RusAF

Bartenev’s best individual performance internationally was winning the 100m at the World Festival of Youth and Students at Warsaw in 1955, which served as an alternative to the more Western European-oriented Summer International University Sports Week held the same year.

After retiring, Bartenev took up coaching, working at Dynamo Moscow.

He was an official at five consecutive Olympic Games – Tokyo 1964, Mexico City 1968, Munich 1972, Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980.

Among the athletes he coached were several Olympic medallists, including Irina Nazarova, a member of the Soviet Union 4x400m team that won gold at Moscow 1980,

He also worked with Galina Bukharina and Nadezhda Ilyina, members of Soviet teams that won bronze medals in the 4x400m relay at Mexico City 1968 and Montreal 1976, respectively.

Bartenev also coached Lyudmila Storozhkova, a 4x100m gold medallist in the 1978 European Championships in Prague.

"Leonid Bartenev devoted his whole life to athletics," the RusAF said in a statement announcing his death on Wednesday (November 17).

"He himself was a brilliant athlete, and later became an equally brilliant coach."