CHRISTIAN GETS A BLESSING
Golden girls back Malcolm for top athletics job and he’s being tipped to bring huge success
CHRISTIAN MALCOLM has won the support of Britain’s golden girls after landing the top coaching job in athletics.
World champions Dina AsherSmith and Katarina JohnsonThompson were among the first t to welcome the appointment of British athletics’ first black head coach.
“N New era,” tweeted 200m world champion Asher-Smith (right (right, top), before heptathlon world champion JohnsonThom Thompson (middle) said the 41-year 41-year-old former sprinter, who only hung up his spikes six year years ago, would be in touch wit with athletes’ needs. Johnson-Thompson said: “Christian is not too disconnected from being an athlete. “So he’s going to have the athl athletes in mind when he makes decisi decisions and that’s definitely what’s neede needed.
“He “He’s such a nice fella and I think he’s go going to do a good job.”
Bri British sprint great Darren Camp Campbell had backed his old teammate mate from the start. Not, he insisted, because Malcolm is black, but “because he’s been successful as a coach and the timing is right for him.”
Malcolm spoke of a new start for British athletics, and of a “new energy and drive” within the governing body after a troubled time.
“Words can’t describe how excited I am to have the opportunity to take this ro role on,” added the former world a and European sprint medallist.
“As an athlete I knew I wanted to give back to the sport when I finished competing.”
Time will tell whether Malcolm, born in Newport, South Wales, and of Jamaican descent, has sufficient experience for such a high-profile role at such a challenging time.
But the early vibe suggests he has almost universal goodwill from the athletes themselves. As Campbell (left) put it: “He’s been in the team, he’s coached the team, he knows everyone. Straight away that takes away the worry athletes might have about a new head coach.”
Malcolm, currently head of performance and coaching at Athletics Australia, will take up his post later this year.
He will work alongside new performance director Sara Symington.