Krasilnikov will enter the 2018-2019 season with Stoyanovskiy while Liamin will play with Velichko

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Viacheslav Krasilnikov will partner with Oleg Stoyanovskiy next season

One year after winning the bronze medal at the 2017 World Championships, Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Nikita Liamin are going their separate ways as the Russians will make the run for their second Olympics with different partners.

Krasilnikov, the only player to feature in the semifinals of the last edition of both the Olympics and World Championships, will join forces with 21-year-old blocker Oleg Stoyanovskiy while Liamin will pair with 22-year-old defender Igor Velichko, Oleg’s former partner and recently awarded as the World Tour’s Rookie of the Year.

💥 B O O O M 💥 New season - new team - same goals. Please welcome my new partner @krasilnikov.vyacheslav

484 Likes, 25 Comments - Oleg Stoyanovskiy (@oleg.stoyanovskiy) on Instagram: "💥 B O O O M 💥 New season - new team - same goals. Please welcome my new partner..."

Krasilnikov and Liamin, who joined forces in 2016 after competing with different partners at the Rio Olympics, competed together at 20 World Tour events, winning two golds, two silvers and one bronze. Their union, however, didn’t survive a disappointing 2018 season, when they just earned a silver medal in nine events, the only time they featured among the best eight teams in an international tournament.

Stoyanovskiy and Krasilnikov will now share the same side of the court

In Stoyanovskiy, the 27-year-old Krasilnikov gets an up-and-coming partner. Since he won the 2014 Youth Olympics with Artem Yarzutkin, the 2.06m-tall blocker has become a World Tour regular, winning six medals in the last three seasons, including three in 2018, when Velichko and him topped the podium in Xiamen, beating Krasilnikov and Liamin in the final.

Both teams are expected to debut in the World Tour four-star event in Yangzhou, China, from October 10-14.