Biathlon-Germany's Ricco Gross takes over as Russia men's coach

MOSCOW, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Multiple Olympic and world champion Ricco Gross of Germany will train the Russian men's biathlon team, the country's biathlon union said on its website. The four-time Olympic and nine-time world champion has signed a contract until the end of the 2017-18 season and will work alongside Russian coach Vladimir Bragin, the Russian Biathlon Union's (RBU) said. Gross, 44, announced his retirement in 2007 and had been working with the German biathlon teams since 2010. "Russia has a very strong men's team. My aim is to make it even stronger," Gross said. "Of course my long terms goal will be to prepare the Russian team for the Olympic games in South Korea in 2018." (Reporting By Dmitriy Rogovitskiy; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)