Primeau latest in exodus of Canadian track and field coaches
August 24, 2009 4:33 p.m.
Canadian track and field has lot another one of its coaches to Britain.
Former decathlete Laurier Primeau of Burnaby, B.C., has been hired as head coach of Scotland’s track and field team, the latest in a list of Canadian coaches that have left for jobs overseas.
Primeau, 37, was head coach of the Vancouver Thunderbirds track club and an assistant with the UBC Thunderbirds.
Primeau follows fellow Canadian track coaches and friends Kevin Tyler and Derek Evely to the UK as part of an exodus of Canadian coaches ahead of the 2012 London Olympics. Tyler was hired by UK Athletics in January as their strategic head of coaching and development, while Evely was hired in June as the director of a new high performance training centre at England’s Loughborough University.
Triathlon coach Joel Filliol, who guided Victoria’s Simon Whitfield to a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Games, was hired as Britain’s head triathlon coach earlier this year, while Peter Eriksson, who helped wheelchair racer Chantal Petitclerc to five gold medals at the Paralympics in Beijing, was also scooped up by the British.
Primeau faces a busy next few years with the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, the 2012 Olympics, and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.