Former Agidel captain Yulia Karpova dies aged 42

Former Agidel captain Yulia Karpova has died at the age of 42, the Ufa women's hockey club announced. She had been battling cancer for a long time.

Karpova played for Moscow's Spartak, Nizhny Novgorod's SKIF and Dynamo teams in Yekaterinburg and St Petersburg. She won the Russian championship and also collected silver and bronze medals in the national competition, alongside a silver medal in the European Champions Cup.

After retiring as a player, she worked on the coaching staff of St Petersburg's women's Dynamo team. Spartak's official website confirmed her death in a statement published on 10 October.

She was the granddaughter of Nikolai Karpov, an honoured Soviet coach. Under his leadership, Spartak won the Soviet championship in 1969 and 1976, as well as the Soviet Cup in 1970.