UK Athletics looking to replace Dave Collins after dismal performance
Four years after letting him slip through their fingers, UK Athletics will try to persuade Charles van Commenee to take over from Dave Collins as their performance director.
By Tom Knight in Beijing
Last Updated: 8:56AM BST 25 Aug 2008
It follows the sport’s poor performance at these Olympics, where only Christine Ohuruogu won gold and the team managed just four medals when the modest target was five.
There were bright moments, including Germaine Mason’s silver medal in the high jump, the emergence of Martyn Rooney, as well as Jeanette Kwayke’s appearance in the 100 metres final.
Collins’ contract expires in March but he is expected to leave earlier after the team’s worst performance since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where no golds were won.
Van Commenee, the Dutchman who took Denise Lewis to the heptathlon gold in Sydney and moulded Kelly Sotherton into a bronze medallist in Athens, will be offered the chance to make the British team a power at the London Olympics in 2012.
Collins, former Professor of Physical Education and Sport Performance at Edinburgh University, was the surprise choice to take over the role in 2005 when his appointment followed a worldwide search for the best person available.
UK Athletics, under the leadership of Dave Moorcroft, had already discarded six short-listed candidates and allowed Van Commenee to leave his job as the sport’s head of multi-events to become the head of performance with the Dutch national Olympic committee. He has proved a major success in the role, with Holland finishing 12th in the medals table.
One of the country’s seven gold medals was in women’s water polo, an event targeted by Van Commenee and given enough funding so that the players could become full-time athletes to prepare for these Games.
However, he could take a lot of coaxing to return to Britain to do the job he wanted in 2004, when he would have had eight years to groom the most promising athletes to win medals in London.
Collins has spoken of his disappointment that too many medal chances were lost in the Bird’s Nest Stadium. He pointed to the 13 fourth to eighth places and three British records set, but accepted that too many medal hopes failed to convert potential into a podium place.
He said: “I am satisfied that we are making progress but disappointed and frustrated about the medals that got away.”
The biggest culprits were Kelly Sotherton, Lisa Dobriskey, Andy Baddeley and Greg Rutherford. Nicola Sanders was not fit enough to compete at the level she reached at last year’s World Championships and for all Paula Radcliffe’s past glories, her marathon run was doomed to fail.
The lowest point was the botched baton handovers in the men’s and women’s sprint relays, despite intensive training and over £500,000 of dedicated lottery funding.
UK Sport, the lottery distributors, have already declared that athletics will have to raise its game or face a cut in its funding since 2004 of £26.5 million.:eek:
The problem for Collins is that while cycling, rowing, sailing and swimming have delivered gold medals, athletics is still talking of “the need for change” and “progress”. HE’LL BE SAYING BRITAINARE “REBUILDING” kk:rolleyes:
While medals are harder to win in athletics than in any other sport because of the 202 nations taking part, the new era of high performance sport means that UK Sport and the British Olympic Association (BOA) will be looking for guarantees.
Collins added: “Four medals will clearly not be enough in London but I think I should be judged on more than a medal count. I can’t categorically promise that we will do better in London 2012.People weren’t exactly queuing up for the job when I took it on and I’ve given it my best shot. There was a lot wrong when I arrived and I think there is a lot more right today.”
Lord Moynihan, the chairman of the BOA, said athletics faced “a big challenge over the next four years to lift itself among some of the formula one sports like sailing, cycling and rowing.
“I think athletics will always be seen as the premier Olympic sport because of the number of medals that are available. So we have to get up there and compete. I did think the target of five medals was modest but realistic and they will feel they have under-performed against that target. They will see it is a long and challenging road ahead.
COLLINS SHOULD NEVER HAVE ALLOWED HIMSELF TO BE TRAPPED INTO MAKING A MEDALS TALLY PREDICTION! kk
“It’s a big ask for athletics, but athletics needs to respond to that and I believe they will.”
Convincing van Commenee that this country needs him could be the first step.