Black seeks improvements after GB miss medal target

ATHLETICS: Performance director admits team’s Doha haul ‘should be better’

British Athletics performance director Neil Black admitted Great Britain must improve after their worst World Championships since 2005.

The squad leave Doha with five medals – including Dina Asher-Smith’s hat-trick – to fall short of their seven-to-nine target.

Asher-Smith won 200 metres gold, 100m silver and 4x100m relay silver while Katarina Johnson-Thompson triumphed in the heptathlon.

The men’s 4x100m relay team also won silver but Black knows it was not good enough ahead of next year’s Olympics.

He said: “It could be better, it should be better. We’ll obviously be talking with UK Sport. Our relationship with UK Sport is really positive.

“It’s working together, it’s reviewing, planning, what have we learned, what are we going to do about it, how do we convert the ‘nearlys’ into medals?

“There’s a lot to feel really, really good about. There’s a lot to feel really, really positive about.

“But the reality is the medal tally is not that which we would have wanted and expected.”

Black also admitted he will consider his future in the wake of Alberto Salazar’s four-year ban.

Salazar, who was Sir Mo Farah’s former coach, was banned by the United States Anti-Doping Agency last week for doping violations.

Usada started conducting an investigation into the American in 2015 following a BBC Panorama programme.

At that time UK Athletics also reviewed whether he should continue to coach Farah but concluded there was “no reason to be concerned” and Black has previously described Salazar as a genius.

He said: “I’ll be reviewing all the information, the board are obviously reviewing all the information and the first person I’ll speak to will be the chair Chris Clark.

“We will go through it in detail and that’s the point I personally will begin to think about my understanding of it, the implications and how I feel about it.

“It’s not something I’ve put any time into at this stage. When you’re the team leader (at a World Championships) you have a clear job and it doesn’t matter what comes up, you have to stay focused on that.

“I’ll play back the decisions I made and once I’ve had a chance to really look through that I’ll have a view.

“I was shocked when it (the report and ban) came out. The timing of it, which obviously wasn’t great in terms of performance for the Doha World Championships.

“My initial reaction was one of shock and I still feel a little bit like that at the moment.”

Picture: PA. Performance director Neil Back: will consider his future in the wake of Salazar ban.