26 November 2012 

UK Athletics Performance Director Neil Black has unveiled the first of a series of new coaching appointments that will form the bedrock of a performance team set to take athletics through to Rio 2016 and the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London.  

Confirming plans to centralise resources around a single High Performance institute in Loughborough– Black has outlined the shape of the performance team that will lead British athletics coaching ranks through the next Olympic cycle.

He said: “Bringing all of our very best staff together into a single centre is absolutely central to the vision for investing National Lottery and UK Sport support in order to maximise British athletics medals in future years, in particular in Rio 2016 and at the World Championships in London in 2017.

“The coaches appointed are selected for their proven technical ability allied to their ability to work across multiple disciplines with multiple athletes at varying stages of their development.

“Having these coaches alongside our world leading sport science and medical team means every British athlete will have a single venue which they can build their training around and means we will be able to offer tailored support to more athletes, more effectively than before.”

UKA employed performance coaches will work in a full time capacity from the Loughborough Institute, supporting athletes based there, supporting the event development and ensuring continuity of practice.

Two further forms of support will be offered to coaches of World Class Performance Programme (WCPP) athletes.  Coach Based Support, where coaches who lead a group of potential world level medallists will be employed full time in that coaching capacity. And Athlete Based Support where coaches who work with individual athletes who have world level medal performances or potential will receive financial support to assist with their coaching commitments.

Coaches confirmed in performance coaching roles with UKA so far are:

Rana Reider: The 2011 USA Track and Field coach of the year, coach to Olympic Triple Jump champion Christian Taylor, World 100m hurdles silver medalist Danielle Carruthers and GB’s long jump World Indoor Bronze medalist Shara Proctor. Reider brings a wealth of sprint, hurdles and jumps knowledge to the UK and will oversee the sprints, sprint hurdles, horizontal jumps and relays programmes from the Institute.

Terrence Mahon: coach to USA 1500m athlete Morgan Uceny, as well as former coach to 2004 Olympic Marathon bronze medalist Deena Kastor. Mahon takes a role as an endurance coach working from the Institute and will be senior men’s team coach for next month’s European Cross Country Championships

Aston Moore: coach to former World and European Triple Jump champion Phillips Idowu, as well as the women’s former triple jump world record holder Ashia Hansen. Moore has previously held the National Event Coach role for UKA and will be based at the Institute as the horizontal jumps coach.

Fuzz Ahmed: coach to 2012 Olympic bronze medalist and European Champion Robbie Grabarz, and 400m athlete Martyn Rooney, Ahmed advised GB’s 2008 Olympic silver medalist Germaine Mason and will run the Vertical Jumps programme at the Institute as well.

Steve Fudge: coach to developing sprint talent James Dasaolu, Leon Baptiste and more recently Richard Buck and Chris Clarke, Fudge has developed a strong developing squad at Loughborough working as an apprentice coach in recent years and will work as a performance coach for sprints from the institute.

Coaches who will be employed by UKA as part of the ‘coach based support’ programme as well as those who will work as consultants for UKA in order to focus on the preparations of a specific athlete, will be confirmed in due course.

UKA Performance Director Neil Black said:

“The variety of ways we can now employ coaches to do what they do best means that we will be in a position to directly support more coach athlete pairs of genuine medal prospects than ever.

“It is important to stress that we do not expect every athlete to locate full time at the Institute.  Some spend long periods abroad either in warm weather training or at altitude and others have alternative UK bases that offer a better solution than relocation. 

“Because of this I am also allocating resources to support coaches and athletes to continue to operate where they are most effective, using the Institute periodically where it adds most value to their programmes which are all overseen by myself and the Head Coaches for the Olympic and Paralympic programmes.”

Further appointments will be confirmed later in the week.