7 October 2008

Double Commonwealth Gold Medallist and former British record holder in both the Discus and the Hammer, Robert Weir has been appointed as heavy throws coach for UK Athletics (UKA).

Weir who competed at three Olympic Games for Great Britain and won Commonwealth Hammer in 1982 and Discus in 1998 joins from Stanford University where he has headed up the men’s track and field programme for a number of years.

Weir, who has been a professional coach in the US for more than 20 years and who has been heavily recruited for many years to return to this country, is the first coaching appointment under the leadership of Charles van Commenee who was recently named as UKA’s Head Coach. He will lead a focused development programme in heavy throws aimed at getting finalists in 2012.

Commenting on the appointment, van Commenee said: "I am delighted to have someone of Bob’s calibre on board and his coaching experience will enable us to fast track our young heavy throwers on the path to 2012, he has worked with Olympians and other sports and coached Olympic medallist Adam Nelson. Additionally Bob will work to ensure long term development of heavy throws in the UK as well as coach development in this area."

Weir, who was the Head Coach to Team USA at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Beijing, and as USA Throws coach at the last two World Championships, will start at UKA before the end of the year, returning to his native Birmingham, said: "This is an amazing opportunity and a challenge.  We are prepared to raise the level of our performances to really compete. There were just two heavy throwers in Beijing for GB and neither made the final and that has to change for London. We have seen that it is possible to be successful at this level. We saw in Beijing, that an unheralded Stephanie Brown Trafton (an American of English parentage) could give the performance of her life to win the Olympic Discus title, so we must believe that anything is possible in London 2012 and work towards giving that opportunity to our athletes."