BLACKMAILED!
Sprinter Neita raps GB chiefs over call to leave her coach
BRITISH sprinter Daryll Neita has accused UK Athletics of blackmail over their handling of the ongoing Rana Reider saga.
Neita was one of three British athletes, together with Adam Gemili and Laviai Nielsen, threatened with the withdrawal of UKA funding last November if they opted to stay with American coach Reider, who faces an investigation into multiple complaints of sexual misconduct.
While Gemili has continued to work with Reider’s group in Florida, Nielsen recently returned to Britain and Neita, a 100m finalist at the Tokyo Olympics, has relocated to Italy. She has now issued a withering verdict on the controversies around Reider’s group which was also rocked by the scandal of Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare, who was with Reider when kicked out of the Olympics for a failed drugs test and banned for 10 years last month.
Addressing the storm at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, where she crashed out in the 60m semi-finals, Neita said: ‘I didn’t actually move due to the federation (UKA). I don’t agree with the way they handled the situation, to be honest. If you’re worried about the safeguarding of athletes you shouldn’t be blackmailed with funding.
‘I think that’s two completely different things, in my opinion. But I left due to the set-up I had, the support I had and just me as a person, what I’m willing to tolerate and be around. I’m in Italy now with a new coach (Marco Airale).’
She added: ‘It kind of felt like the federation just wanted to cover their backs, which I understand because it’s a no-tolerance thing. But I just feel like, (the UKA stance of) “We’re not going to give you funding if you stay and if you leave we’ll give you funding”, it’s a bit like, do you care if I stay? Do you actually care?’
UKA warned the three athletes in November that membership of their World Class Programme, which supports athletes with up to £28,000 in Lottery funding each year, would be suspended if they did not cease association with Reider until the conclusion of the US Center for SafeSport investigation.
Reider’s lawyer Ryan Stevens told
Sportsmail: ‘To date, the US Center for SafeSport has not filed a notice of allegations against Rana. We are fully prepared to defend any forthcoming allegations.’
Explaining her decision to leave, Neita, who joined former UKA coach Reider in 2019, said: ‘I just don’t want to be around controversies that don’t involve me. I learned a lot (in Reider’s group), but it was time for me to leave when I did.
‘I just made the decision that I had such a good season and it was so overshadowed by bulls*** and things that don’t concern me.’
Neita was scathing about Okagbare, saying: ‘The Blessing thing was just disgusting. It’s any athlete’s nightmare, much less someone you train with every day. To be around someone every day . . . you have no idea what these people are doing when they go home.
‘I just feel like that’s not an athlete. And she didn’t just steal from competitors, she stole a lot from us. Any athlete that has those kind of thoughts or intentions should just quit now.
‘It sucks because I joined that group with Olympic champions, world champions and it’s so inspirational, and for somebody to come into the group, hasn’t been there for longer than a year and to bring that to it and the people that are there, the people who hold so much legacy and talent, it’s absolutely disgusting to do that to people’s careers.’
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by other athletes within Reider’s training group.
Britain’s gold medal favourite Keely Hodgkinson yesterday withdrew from the championships with a minor thigh injury ahead of her 800m semi-final.