Record haul at Europeans can’t save Malcolm as head coach
UK Athletics chairman Ian Beattie has defended the decision to axe head coach Christian Malcolm despite medals galore at the European Championships.
The British team headed home from Munich yesterday with their second-biggest ever haul of 20, including golds for Laura Muir, Zharnel Hughes and the men’s 4x400 relay.
It was the farewell act for the Welshman, who was told in June his current post was being axed at the end of thesummer,pavingtheway for the return of Stephen Maguire as technical director next month in an effective admission UKA got it wrong when they snubbed the ex-scottish Athletics supremoinfavourofhisformer protégé in 2020.
Maguire will be given free rein to shape his own team, Beattie confirmed, and it is understood Malcolm will not be retained, despite his popularity within the British squad.
“I would rather we’re in this position having had a really successful summer than I would that we hadn’t and it’s credit to Christian and the rest of the team,” said Beattie, who added: “Stephen’s role is wider in termsofthewholetechnical performanceside.christian hadaspecificremitandthat didn’t cover the para side. Stephen will look after the whole performance area.”
Sources confirmed Malcolm’s disappointment at being cast out in the cold.
However, in a statement, he praised the efforts of the likes of Muir and world champion Jake Wightman in contributing to a golden summer.
He said: “It’s clear we’re in a really strong era for the middle distance athletes. You only have to look at the UK Champs each year to see how hard it is to get into the GB & NI team.”