ASTANA – After Yerlan Sagymbayev resigned as the head coach of the Kazakh national team following the third-place finish in the Final Olympic Qualification, Andrei Shayanov has been appointed as his successor.

The signing of Shayanov for the remainder of the season doesn’t come to a surprise. He has already coached many national team players as the head coach of Kazakhstan’s KHL team Barys Astana. The team finished the 24-team league in 15th place and lost the quarterfinal series to Ak Bars Kazan.

Kazakhstan will play in the 2009 IIHF World Championship Division I Group A in Vilnius, Lithuania, where the Kazakh Hockey Federation expects nothing less than the promotion after having failed in the other attempts since the relegation in 2006.

Kazakhstan faces Slovenia, Japan, Lithuania, Croatia and Australia from April 11-17 in the race for promotion to the 2010 World Championship in Germany.

The decision about the head coach for the future will fall after the tournament.