From the Sidelines (From Your Local Guardian)

From the Sidelines

9:26am Friday 29th August 2008

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While Team GB returned triumphant from the Beijing Olympics on Monday, celebrating winning a bumper 47 medals, athletics chiefs will have to hold an inquest into Britain’s poor performance in the premier Olympic sport.

While some sports – cycling, in particular – attained far greater success than anticipated, track and field fell short of its modest aim of five medals.

This year’s performance was even worse than in Athens four years ago, when Britain also gained just four medals – three golds and one bronze – compared with one gold, two silvers and one bronze this time.

Bearing in mind track and field gets the lion’s share of government funding and sent the largest contingent, with 68 competitors, there is a major task to turn around performances before London 2012.

UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner, based in Kew, must waste no time in setting about this task.

Team GB sent just one thrower for the eight events, with 24 medals up for grabs. But we also sent a large endurance contingent and, not only did none win a medal but, for the first time in more than a century, Britain failed to have a men’s top-eight finisher. Only one woman, Lisa Dobriskey in the 1,500m, managed it.

The failure will have been felt by Lord Coe, chairman of the London 2012 organising committee, a two-time winner of the Olympic 1,500m title.

Not since 1988 has Britain won a men’s endurance medal, although Kelly Holmes did achieve the women’s 800m and 1,500m double four years ago.

Coaches at UK Athletics’ endurance performance centre at St Mary’s, Twickenham, led by Alan Storey, need to deliver medals in 2012.

Change can be achieved but this can only be done with inspirational and skilled leadership, yet athletics’ coaching structure appears fragmented.

When British athletics ruled the waves, it had head coaches, such as Geoff Dyson, John Le Masurier and Frank Dick, co-ordinating the coaching structure and the development of Britain’s athletes, supported by a team of specialist coaches.

One worrying fact is that once you have passed a qualification test, anyone can become a club coach, and there is no audit system to ensure they are coaching correctly or working alongside experienced coaches. This needs to change.

Maybe, in these days of professional sport, athletics needs to follow cycling’s example of having groups of specialist athletes based at centres around the country.